NEW DELHI: Mumbai Indians captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and chose to bowl first in their IPL 2026 encounter against Punjab Kings on Thursday at Dharamsala. Bumrah became the tenth skipper to lead the franchise, with Hardik Pandya unavailable for the match selection and stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav also not part of the XI.
MI made two notable changes, bringing in Sherfane Rutherford and Shardul Thakur. Rohit Sharma is expected to arrive as the Impact Player later in the contest. At the toss, Bumrah said, “We’ve decided to bowl first. We watched the previous game and felt that as the cold weather sets in, the pitch might play differently and settle down. It feels great—when I came here at 19, I didn’t imagine I would become a Test captain before being handed the MI role (smiles). I enjoy responsibility; this is a fresh challenge and I want to have fun. With three matches remaining, we want to enjoy the moment, and if possible, trouble a few teams. Surya isn’t here for personal reasons, and Allah isn’t available either.”
Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer indicated they would have opted to bowl first as well, adding, “We would have bowled first even if we’d won the toss. The surface looks a bit drier. We’re still unsure how exactly the pitch will behave, so we’re staying upbeat. We can’t keep dwelling on what hasn’t gone right—we have to focus on being in good shape and take a positive mindset into the game. Harpreet Brar, Xavier Bartlett and Azmatullah Omarzai are coming in.”
Teams
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI)
- Ryan Rickelton (w)
- Naman Dhir
- Tilak Varma
- Sherfane Rutherford
- Will Jacks
- Raj Bawa
- Corbin Bosch
- Deepak Chahar
- Shardul Thakur
- Jasprit Bumrah (c)
- Raghu Sharma
Mumbai Indians (Impact Subs)
- Rohit Sharma
- Mayank Rawat
- Robin Minz
- Krish Bhagat
- Trent Boult
Punjab Kings (Playing XI)
- Priyansh Arya
- Prabhsimran Singh (w)
- Cooper Connolly
- Shreyas Iyer (c)
- Suryansh Shedge
- Shashank Singh
- Azmatullah Omarzai
- Marco Jansen
- Xavier Bartlett
- Arshdeep Singh
- Yuzvendra Chahal
Punjab Kings (Impact Subs)
- Vijaykumar Vyshak
- Harpreet Brar
- Mitchell Owen
- Vishnu Vinod
- Praveen Dubey
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