The absence of Will Jacks and Mitchell Santner opens the door for batter Sherfane Rutherford and mystery spinner Allah Ghazanfar to potentially play today. Interestingly, both Rutherford and Ghazanfar were part of KKR's IPL 2024-winning squad, but did not get a single game.

KKR face a significant dilemma when it comes to picking which 4 overseas players to go with. Sunil Narine and Cameron Green are expected to be a lock, but what about the other two? Finn Allen's recent form and game-changing ability is possibly going to get him the nod over his NZ opening partner Tim Seifert. 

But KKR's big dilemma comes in picking their last overseas player. They could go with either pacer Blessing Muzarabani or powerhitter Rovman Powell. It's a big call, given KKR's relative inexperience in both areas.

Mumbai Indians are without England all-rounder Will Jacks and New Zealand all-rounder Mitchell Santner today. There is no confirmation yet whether the duo have even joined up with the MI camp. Last season, both players were regular features in MI's lineup.

Kolkata Knight Riders splashed Rs 25.20 crore on Australian all-rounder Cameron Green in the auction, a record IPL fee for an overseas player. Today, he is likely to make his debut, even though questions remain regarding how many overs he will bowl. 

Interestingly, Green is set to return to Mumbai, which was the franchise with whom he had made his IPL debut.

Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene announced on the eve of the game that ace speedster Jasprit Bumrah is available to play in the match against KKR tonight. Earlier this month, Bumrah reportedly visited the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru for workload management.

Kolkata Knight Riders have been severely hit by injuries. While Harshit Rana and Akash Deep have been ruled out of the tournament, Matheesha Pathirana is also set to miss at least two weeks of action due to a calf strain.

While the franchise is hunting for their sixth IPL crown, Mumbai Indians last won their IPL season opener in 2012 when they defeated Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets. In their last 18 campaign openers, MI have won four games and lost 14. Notably, they lost their very first match as well, to Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008.

Mumbai Indians Squad: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (w), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Naman Dhir, Ryan Rickelton, AM Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Danish Malewar, Ashwani Kumar, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar, Will Jacks, Mitchell Santner, Mayank Rawat, Atharva Ankolekar, Raghu Sharma.

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Tim Seifert (w), Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik, Rahul Tripathi, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Rachin Ravindra, Blessing Muzarabani, Navdeep Saini, Prashant Solanki, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Tejasvi Dahiya, Saurabh Dubey.

Mumbai Indians are set to create history tonight. With their appearance in the match against KKR, they will become the first franchise team to play 300 T20 matches. Overall, MI will join Pakistan national cricket team and English country side Somerset County Cricket Club to achieve the feat.

Hello everyone, welcome to this space. Five-time champions Mumbai Indians take on three-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders in the second game of the Indian Premier League 2026 tonight. Stay connected for live scores and updates of the game.