Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Just moments before the toss, broadcasters announced that Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya would not play in the match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Seconds after the announcement, Suryakumar Yadav – smiling, chewing gum, and dressed in the blue and gold jersey – walked out with the team sheet, shook hands with Ravi Shastri, and then greeted Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel.What followed was a loud cheer from the Delhi crowd as they saw their T20 World Cup-winning captain Surya.The big question was: why was Surya leading the team, and why was Hardik missing such an important clash?The moment Axar won the toss and opted to field against Mumbai Indians, and spoke about his team combination, the focus quickly shifted to Surya.“(Hardik Pandya) He’s not well, doesn’t look good, so he was not fit for today’s game. So just getting into his shoes today,” Surya, who was the stand-in captain for the Delhi Capitals clash, said.
Mumbai Indians began their IPL 2026 campaign with a six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.Mumbai Indians brought in Deepak Chahar in place of Pandya.“(On the win against KKR) If you win the first game after 13-14 years, there’s a lot of positivity in the camp, and we’re very happy, but completely different venue here from Wankhede. We have to take good responsibility and have a good game here. (On the surface) Looks good, The toss was irrelevant. We wanted to bat first, they wanted to bowl first, but yeah, very happy to bat first. Looks good one. We’ve done here really well when we’ve batted first and defended. Quite a few changes. Deepak Chahar comes in for Hardik. Corbin Bosch comes in for Boulty, that’s a tactical change. Boulty had a good game in the last game at Wankhede. And Mitch Santner comes in for Allah Ghazanfar,” Surya said.Axar went with the same side against Mumbai Indians. “I choose to bowl first. First match at home, I want to see how the wicket is behaving. It looks a bit dry, a bit hard. We chased well in the last match. To chase down the target from 26/ 4 in the powerplay, it gives a lot of confidence to the group. Even the top-order know that there are batters in the lower order who can step up if they fail. Playing a home game is always beneficial. Our DC supporters will cheer for us. Same team,” Axar said. Teams:Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh KumarMumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Naman Dhir, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit BumrahHere are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:Delhi Capitals Impact subs: Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi Dar, Sameer Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun NairMumbai Indians Impact subs: Mayank Markande, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar
