Why Jasprit Bumrah Is Leading MI For The 1st Time In Place Of Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav vs PBKS
Jasprit Bumrah is leading Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2026 match against Punjab Kings in Dharamsala on Thursday
Jasprit Bumrah is leading Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2026 match against Punjab Kings in Dharamsala on Thursday. This is the first time in his IPL career that the pace great is captaining MI. Hardik Pandya, MI's regular captain, is down with a back spasm, while Suryakumar Yadav, who led MI in two matches before, is out due to personal reasons.
Mumbai Indians are already out of the IPL play-offs race. MI made two changes from their previous match playing XI. Suryakumar Yadav, who captained MI in the previous match, is missing this fixture "due to personal reasons". AM Ghazanfar is the other MI player who will sit out. "I did not expect to be a Test captain before becoming an IPL captain," Bumrah said.
PBKS, on the other hand, have included Azmatullah Omarzai and Xavier Bartlett, with Marcus Stoinis and Ben Dwarshuis missing out.Â
"We have decided to bowl first. We saw the last game and felt that maybe with the cold weather coming down, the wicket would settle down. I didn't think that I would be a Test captain before becoming MI captain (smiles). As much as we can, we can play three games left, and we want to enjoy and maybe ruffle a few teams. Surya is not here for personal reasons, and Allah is not there as well," Bumrah said during the toss.
"We would have bowled first as well. The wicket looks a bit drier. Still don't know how the pitch will play, so just being positive about it. We should stop thinking about what has gone wrong. We have to think about being in good shape and having a positive mindset. Harpreet Brar, Xavier Bartlett and Azmatullah Omarzai come in," PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer said.
Teams: Mumbai Indians: Jasprit Bumrah (c), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Naman Dhir, Sherfane Rutherford, Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Raghu Sharma.
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (c), Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Jasprit Bumrah
Hardik Pandya
Mumbai Indians
Punjab Kings