Quinton de Kock missed out as the Mumbai Indians face the Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 2026 opener at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, March 29. Having returned with the MI, many expected that the South African wicketkeeper would straightaway get a game in IPL 2026; however, he will have to warm the bench for the opener.
De Kock missed out as MI went with his compatriot Ryan Rickleton for the KKR clash. Both players offer similar roles, and with only one place available at the top of the order with Rohit Sharma, the MI management seems to have gone with Rickelton at least for now.
Hardik Pandya wins toss, MI opt to bowl
Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to bowl first. Hardik reasoned that the greenery on the pitch was the reason behind his bowling decision. "We are going to bowl. Looks like a good track, it appears greener than it used to. Let's see how it plays. This is our fortress, the crowd is behind us and we're looking to play a good game. We started a couple of weeks earlier, have plenty of experience and a mix of youth. Rohit, Surya, Mitchell Santner - so there's no shortage of captains; I'm just excited to go out there and perform. We're going with 6 bowlers and 5 batters," Hardik said at the toss.
Meanwhile, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane also wanted to bowl first. "We were looking to bowl, never seen this amount of grass at Wankhede. Preparations have been good, couple of camps in Kolkata and in Mumbai as well. Know that MI is a champion team and we're looking forward to be playing against them. Just stay at the moment and don't look at the past. A couple of injuries - we're going with 6 batters and 5 bowlers. Four overseas players - Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Sunil Narine and Blessing Muzarabani," Rahane said at the toss.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Blessing Muzarabani
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
MI and KKR impact subs:
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs: Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Dubey, Tejasvi Dahiya
Mumbai Indians Impact subs: Suryakumar Yadav, Corbin Bosch, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Ashwani Kumar
