New Delhi, April 4 – Suryakumar Yadav will lead Mumbai Indians in the absence of Hardik Pandya. Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to bowl first in the first double-header match of IPL 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
Both teams are playing their first afternoon match of the season after winning their respective first games. Hardik was not seen at MI's practice sessions for the last two days in the national capital.
MI has stated that, "Hardik Pandya is unwell and will therefore not be playing today. Suryakumar Yadav will be the captain today." Suryakumar is coming off after leading India to victory in the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup.
Suryakumar also said that Deepak Chahar, Corbin Bosch, and Mitchell Santner have replaced Pandya, Trent Boult, and AM Ghazanfar in the playing eleven. "I'm stepping into his shoes today. Winning the first game after 13-14 years gives a lot of confidence. The toss was irrelevant. We wanted to bat first," he said.
Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel said that they have retained their playing eleven. "In our first home match, I want to see how the pitch is behaving. It looks a bit dry and hard. We played well in the last match."
"Chasing a target of 26/4 in the powerplay gives a lot of confidence to the team. Even the top-order knows that there are batters in the lower order who can step up if they fail. Playing a home game is always beneficial. Our Delhi Capitals supporters will cheer for us," he said.
Playing XIs:
Delhi Capitals: KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (captain), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, and Mukesh Kumar
Impact Substitutes: Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi, Sameer Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera, and Karun Nair
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wicketkeeper), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Naman Dhir, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, and Jasprit Bumrah
Impact Substitutes: Mayank Markande, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, and Ashwani Kumar