Mumbai Indians’ Suryakumar Yadav (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary) Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League 2026 match at the Wankhede Stadium.Mumbai Indians have opted to field on a surface that appears to be a bit greener than usual at the Wankhede. Notably, Suryakumar Yadav is not part of the starting XI and is expected to feature later as an Impact Player.
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Greenstone Lobo predicts IPL 2026 winner Knight Riders of Calcutta (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (w), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Blessing Muzarabani.Bombay Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (w), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.At the toss, Pandya explained the decision to field first and expressed confidence in his team.“We’re going to bowl. It looks like a good track, it seems greener than it used to be. We’ll see how it plays out. This is our fort, the crowd is behind us and we’re trying to play a good game. We’ve started a couple of weeks early, we’ve got a lot of experience and a mix of youth. Rohit, Surya, Mitchell Santner – so we’re not short of captains and we’re going there and we’re looking forward to the 6.” batsmen and 5 bowlers.’On the other hand, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane admitted that he would also prefer to bowl first given the unusual turf on the pitch.
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“We wanted to bowl, we have never seen that much grass in Wankhede. Preparations have been good, couple of camps in Calcutta and Mumbai too. Know that MI is a champion team and we are looking forward to playing against them. Stay in the moment and don’t look at the past. Couple of injuries – we are going with 6 batsmen and 5 Allse players, Sunilron Finrine and Na Greene players from the bowlers. Blessings Muzarabani.”Mumbai Indians also handed out debut caps to AM Ghazanfar and Sherfane Rutherford, while Shardul Thakur marked his return to the franchise.Interestingly, MI will be looking to break a long-standing trend as they have not won their opening match of an IPL season since 2012.
