Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to bat first against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL 2026 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. MI also handed a debut cap to leg-spinner Raghu Sharma. Rohit Sharma, who is still sidelined due to a hamstring injury picked up earlier in the campaign, remains unavailable. For CSK, MS Dhoni also missed the fixture as he continues his recovery from a long-standing calf problem.<\/p>\n
Hardik said he wanted his team to make a start with the bat. \u201cWe\u2019re going to bat first,\u201d he stated after the coin landed in MI\u2019s favour. \u201cThe wicket looks like a good one. After the way we batted in the last match, we want to give our batters another chance to score runs. We need to play our best cricket and see where it takes us. The mood has been good, but it\u2019s been challenging\u2014we have to fight. It\u2019s also about pride. We need to put in a strong overall effort. In 40 overs, we\u2019ve lost the game in a couple of overs that turned out to be crucial moments. We have one debut: the leggie (Raghu Sharma) is playing his first game, and Krish is coming in for Ashwani,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, meanwhile, explained that his team too preferred batting first on the Chepauk surface. \u201cWe were looking to bat first. The pitch looks good, though it\u2019s a little on the drier side, and it won\u2019t change much. It\u2019s a tough track to bat on, especially considering how the last game went. In terms of confidence, everyone is right up there. Stick to the process, do the process properly, and the result will follow. (Ramakrishna) Ghosh comes in for Gurjapneet Singh and Prashant Veer comes in for Akeal Hosein,\u201d Gaikwad said.<\/p>\n
Both franchises have found the season difficult, despite their history of success in the IPL. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings\u2014widely regarded as the two most accomplished teams in league history\u2014are currently struggling in IPL 2026. Each side has played eight matches so far, with MI winning two and CSK securing three victories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to bat first against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL 2026 match at the MA…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"IPL 2026: Hardik Pandya Batting vs CSK as Rohit, Dhoni Sit Out","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Hardik Pandya bats first as MI face CSK in Chennai\u2014Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni miss out, with Raghu Sharma making his IPL debut.","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"yoast_head":"\n