Mumbai: Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders in their opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Mumbai got a boost on the eve of the match as pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah rejoined the squad after a short dash to the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru for a consultation. Bumrah was among the first to mark his run-up.
Both Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton took the gloves for practice, but in the end, the younger South African left-handed batter/wicketkeeper got the nod ahead of his senior countryman.
Afghanistan mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar was handed his debut cap before the MI squad got into a huddle, which included the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Sherfane Rutherford, who received his MI cap from compatriot and team legend Kieron Pollard, is making his debut with Shardul Thakur.
Cameron Green, the costliest overseas player ever after KKR picked him for INR 25.20 crore, will also be playing his first match for KKR along with Finn Allen and Blessing Muzarabani, the Zimbabwe pacer who made a last-minute switch from Pakistan Super League to IPL.
Pandya said the pitch looks greener than usual, and so they want to have the first use of the pitch.
“Looks like a good pitch. Pitch looks greener than we’re used to, so I just want to see how it does. This is our fortress, whole crowd is here to support us, so we want to play good cricket and entertain them. Jassi is going to be there,” he said.
KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane, too, was surprised by the amount of grass on the pitch and said they would have also bowled first.
Playing XIs:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (capt), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
Kolkata Knight Riders: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Blessing Muzarabani
(IANS)
