IPL 2026, MI vs KKR preview: Mumbai eye winning start against depleted Kolkata
It has been a while since Mumbai Indians, the joint-most successful team in the IPL, laid their hands on a trophy which they claimed five times between 2013 and 2020
Mumbai, Mar 28 (PTI) A robust Mumbai Indians’ outfit will begin their bid to end a five-year title drought in the Indian Premier League when they take on a depleted Kolkata Knight Riders in their tournament opener here on Sunday.
It has been a while since Mumbai Indians, the joint-most successful team in the IPL, laid their hands on a trophy which they claimed five times between 2013-2020.
Last year, the Hardik Pandya-led side finished third after losing to runners-up Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 2 but Mumbai Indians will feel they have all bases covered to have a crack at what would be a record-extending sixth title win this year.
A new-look Rohit Sharma will be keen to be back among runs while Mumbai Indians’ all-round strength makes them a side to beat in the tournament once again. It includes a heavy chunk of India’s T20 World Cup winning squad in skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Pandya, Tilak Varma and Jasprit Bumrah.
MI’s rich overseas talent bench consists of another wicketkeeper-batter option in Ryan Rickelton, Sherfane Rutherford, Corbin Bosch, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, AM Ghazanfar and even Trent Boult, who is will be expected to team up with Bumrah.
In Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar, MI have two seasoned Indian operators while Naman Dhir could once again continue playing the role of a finisher which he executed with a lot of success last year.
The challenge, thus, will not only be to find the right playing combination and utilise that Impact Player rule to their benefit but also to notch up a few wins at the start which gives them a momentum, as IPL’s perennial slow-starters Mumbai Indians are notorious on this aspect.
The visitors Kolkata Knight Riders carry some local flavour in skipper Ajinkya Rahane and the young Angkrish Raghuvanshi to Mumbai but they have some pertinent questions to answer even before the first ball has begun.
The biggest task for the KKR leadership group would be to zero in on a bowling attack which looks far too different than what they would have envisaged after the auction.
Mustafizur Rahman was released by the franchise on BCCI's instructions, while two of KKR’s India bowlers Akash Deep and Harshit Rana are out of the tournament due to injuries.
Blessing Muzarabani, a man who has earned a lot of his reputation in white-ball cricket, may find himself in thick of things right from the word go but there is no question that a lot will ride on Varun Chakravarthy in that bowling line-up.
KKR also carry two of CSK’s former players in Rachin Ravindra, who should bolster their batting, and Matheesha Pathirana. Tim Seifert looks the only starting choice for wicketkeeper-batter among while they also have two quality all-rounders in Cameron Green and Sunil Narine.
Teams (from): Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (wk), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Atharva Ankolekar, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, AM Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Mohammad Izhar, Raghu Sharma.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh (vc), Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya (wk), Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sarthak Ranjan, Tim Seifert (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Rachin Ravindra, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Saurabh Dubey, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Matheesha Pathirana, Navdeep Saini, Prashant Solanki, Umran Malik, Varun Chakravarthy.
Match starts at 7:30 pm IST. PTI