Mumbai Indians have dropped Trent Boult from their playing XI against Punjab Kings in the ongoing IPL 2026. While announcing the changes in the squad, captain Hardik Pandya didn’t inform about Boult, which only indicates that it was a tactical call. Notably, the former New Zealand international had a hard time in the ongoing season, having claimed just one wicket in four matches, which is nowhere close to the standard he had set for himself.
His poor form eventually forced Mumbai to bench him. The veteran was also not named in the Impact Player Lists, as Mumbai are playing with three overseas players in the game. Either Corbin Bosch or AM Ghazanfar will come into the mix later in the game, depending on the nature of the surface.
MI made two more changes to playing XI
Mumbai Indians were forced to make two other changes to the playing XI. Former captain Rohit Sharma is ruled out with a hamstring injury, while Mitchell Santner is dealing with an illness. In their absence, Quinton de Kock is set to open alongside Ryan Rickelton, while Mayank Rawat replaces Santner.
On the other hand, Punjab have named an unchanged playing XI. Capitan Shreyas Iyer had won the toss and elected to field first at the Wankhede Stadium. Explaining the reason behind the move, he explained that the wicket looked dry, which would help the bowlers early on, but expects that with dew settling in later on, the surface could support the batters.
“Looks a bit dry, but I interacted with a few of the players. They said that with the dew coming in, it gets better and better. So, based on that, I took that decision. We're going with the same team,” Iyer said.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (c), Cooper Connolly, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock (wk), Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Mayank Rawat, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah
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