Mumbai Indians The captain Hardik Pandya Won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders. Indian Premier League 2026 match at Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai Indians have chosen to field on a slightly greener surface than usual at Wankhede. in particular, Surya Kumar Yadav Not part of the starting XI and expected to feature as an impact player later on.Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c) Cameron GreeneAngkrish Raghuvanshi (W), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil NarayanVarun Chakraborty, Vibhu Arora, Blessing MazarabaniMumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickleton (W), Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya (C), Sheriff Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah Talking about the toss, Pandya explained the decision to bowl first and expressed confidence in his team. “We are going to bowl. Looks like a good track, it looks greener than before. Let’s see how it plays. This is our fort, the crowd is behind us and we are trying to play a good game. We started a few weeks back, there is a lot of experience and a mix of youth. Rohit, Suriya, Mitchell Santner – so there is no shortage of captaincy. We are going with 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers. KKR captain on the other hand Ajinkya Rahane Given the exceptional grass cover on the pitch, he admitted that he would have preferred to bowl first as well. “We wanted to bowl, never seen so much grass at Wankhede. Preparation went well, some camps in Kolkata 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 to the past. Few injuries – we are going with 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers. Four foreign players – Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Sunil Narine and Blessing Mazarbani.“ Mumbai Indians also handed debut caps to AM Ghazanfar and Sherfin Rutherford, while Shardul Thakur announced his return to the franchise. Interestingly, MI are looking to break a long-standing trend, as they have not won their opening match of the IPL season since 2012.
