Punjab Kings opted to bowl first against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium, a decision driven by the chase-friendly conditions and the knock-on effect of a few key injury and availability concerns for the defending side.
Why Mumbai Indians made changes
Mumbai Indians recalled Quinton de Kock to the XI as Rohit Sharma missed out due to what appeared to be a hamstring issue picked up during the previous match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. MI captain Hardik Pandya said they would evaluate Rohit over the next couple of games.
MI also dealt with illness in their spin department, with left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner ruled out. That opened the door for an overseas-player swap, and the franchise brought in Delhi debutant Mayank Rawat as the replacement offspin allrounder.
Rawat’s recent output included a strike rate of 123 across 11 matches, while his bowling workload for Delhi had been under one-and-a-half overs per game.
PBKS’ bowling call and MI’s XI
Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer, who was unbeaten in the captain’s role at the time, had no hesitation choosing to bowl after winning the toss—an approach aligned with the ground’s reputation for making successful chases easier.
There was further disruption for Mumbai Indians as left-arm fast bowler Trent Boult was also absent from both the playing group and the bench. In his place, Sherfane Rutherford was included in the starting XI, with AM Ghazanfar expected to be available as an Impact Player when MI look to defend their final total.
- Punjab Kings chose to field first after winning the toss
- Rohit Sharma missed out with a hamstring concern
- Hardik Pandya said Rohit would be assessed over the next couple of matches
- Mitchell Santner ruled out due to illness
- Mayank Rawat came in as the Delhi debutant offspin allrounder
- Trent Boult was unavailable, while Rutherford started
Playing XIs and benches
Mumbai Indians XI
- 1 Quinton de Kock (wk)
- 2 Ryan Rickelton
- 3 Tilak Varma
- 4 Suryakumar Yadav
- 5 Hardik Pandya (capt.)
- 6 Sherfane Rutherford
- 7 Naman Dhir
- 8 Mayank Rawat
- 9 Shardul Thakur
- 10 Deepak Chahar
- 11 Jasprit Bumrah
MI bench: AM Ghazanfar, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar
Punjab Kings XI
- 1 Priyansh Arya
- 2 Prabhsimran Singh (wk)
- 3 Cooper Connolly
- 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt.)
- 5 Shashank Singh
- 6 Marcus Stoinis
- 7 Marco Jansen
- 8 Xavier Bartlett
- 9 Vijaykumar Vyshak
- 10 Arshdeep Singh
- 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
PBKS bench: Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Harpreet Brar, Suyansh Shedge, Yash Thakur
What PBKS were aiming for
PBKS stuck with a combination that had been working for them, and the incentive for the chase-friendly toss decision was clear: a win in the night match would lift them to the summit of the points table.
