Amid the poor form in the ongoing IPL 2026 season, the Mumbai Indians (MI) have made multiple shocking moves. They have replaced multiple players in the playing combination against the Lucknow Super Giants for tonight’s game.
Hardik Pandya, the skipper of MI, has been dropped from the team. In place of Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav came at the toss and informed about the replacements they have made to take on the Lucknow Super Giants.
Why is Hardik Pandya not playing tonight? That’s been the main question as soon as MI’s playing eleven was published, and Yadav walked into the ground for the toss. Yadav informed that Hardik Pandya is unwell to play the match tonight.
Why is Hardik Pandya not playing in the LSG vs MI IPL 2026 match?
“He (Hardik) is not well tonight, so going into his shoes. Corbin comes in for Boult, Rohit is back. You can run away from the fact that MI is not known for this position, put your hands up, and play your best game. Can’t say it will make us dangerous, we have five games left and try to win them,” Mumbai Indians’ stand-in captain, Suryakumar Yadav, said.
Meanwhile, MI won the toss and opted to bowl first against the Lucknow Super Giants.
“We will look to bowl first. (Any particular reason?) Nothing, it looks good. It’s a little humid also tonight. There’s no wind. In the second innings, we saw what happened here in the last 2-3 games. So it became a little better. So just want to take advantage and give it to the bowlers,” Yadav explained.
Mumbai Indians issues official statement on Hardik Pandya’s absence in the match vs LSG in Mumbai
Later, the Mumbai Indians confirmed that Hardik Pandya is out of tonight’s game due to a back spasm. On a previous occasion, in the ongoing season, Pandya missed another match because of illness. On that occasion, too, Suryakumar Yadav had to play as the acting skipper of the team.
After missing out on multiple matches because of injury, Rohit Sharma has finally returned to the playing combination. He is kept in the impact players list and is expected to take the ground in the second innings when the Mumbai Indians will be chasing a total set by the away team, Lucknow Super Giants, at the Wankhede Stadium. Ryan Rickelton is also there in the playing XI, so it is expected to see the opening pair of Rohit and Ryan back in action again for the former champions.
MI vs LSG IPL 2026 Playing XIs:
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma
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