{"id":49979,"date":"2026-04-23T19:11:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=49979"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:48:06","slug":"ipl-2026-mi-vs-csk-mumbai-indians-choose-bowling-first-in-mi-vs-csk-rivalry-game-without-rohit-dhoni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\/ipl-2026-mi-vs-csk-mumbai-indians-choose-bowling-first-in-mi-vs-csk-rivalry-game-without-rohit-dhoni\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026 MI vs CSK: No Rohit, no Dhoni in MI vs CSK rivalry as Mumbai Indians elect to field first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toss: MI choose to bowl first as landmark absence marks Wankhede night<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to bowl first at Wankhede. He said MI wanted to keep the same XI after a win and felt intensity had improved. The pitch looked green but good for batting later. Ruturaj Gaikwad said he would have bowled first as well, calling it a 50-50 call and stressing the need to cash in on starts.<\/p>\n

Even as MI went through warm-ups, Rohit Sharma stayed away from main drills, seen idly juggling a football and not taking part in the group sessions, suggesting he is not playing. MS Dhoni is also not in CSK\u2019s XI after a late decision on fitness, and Will Jacks is missing again.<\/p>\n

Rohit\u2013Dhoni absence marks rare shift in MI\u2013CSK rivalry<\/strong><\/div>\n

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This is the first MI vs CSK clash since 2011 where neither Rohit Sharma nor MS Dhoni features in the game, a rare break in the rivalry\u2019s pattern at Wankhede, with the crowd still giving a strong reception to Gaikwad on arrival.<\/p>\n

Rohit Sharma looked unlikely to feature, spending warm-ups away from main drills at Wankhede. MS Dhoni is not part of CSK\u2019s XI after a late fitness call. Two notable absences shape the biggest rivalry, marking first MI-CSK clash without Rohit or Dhoni since 2011.<\/p>\n

Chennai Super Kings Playing XI:<\/strong> Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Sarfaraz Khan, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary<\/p>\n

Mumbai Indians Playing XI<\/strong>: Quinton de Kock (wk), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah, Krish Bhagat, Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar<\/p>\n

Impact Substitutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mumbai Indians:<\/strong> Will Jacks, Raj Angad Bawa, Shardul Thakur, Danish Malewar, Mayank Rawat<\/p>\n

Chennai Super Kings:<\/strong> Urvil Patel, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Matt Henry<\/p>\n

Pitch Report \u2013<\/strong> Mumbai hosts MI vs CSK at Wankhede on Pitch 7, a surface expected to favour batters. Boundaries are short, with 57m pockets and straight hits around 74m. A thin grass covering may assist early movement, but dew is likely to make batting easier later in the evening. The conditions point towards another high-scoring game, with 200-plus totals likely to be standard. Bowlers will need early control with the new ball, as grip becomes harder once the ball gets wet. Anything under 210 could still be competitive if execution is sharp.<\/p>\n

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MI vs CSK: a rivalry driven more by history than form<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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MI vs CSK still carries weight because of history, not current form. Both sides are five-time IPL champions and sit in the bottom half of the table. Mumbai come in after breaking a four-match losing run, while Chennai are still searching for stability and clearer combinations.<\/p>\n

Chennai have had injury issues, with Ayush Mhatre ruled out for the season. MS Dhoni is back training but remains uncertain for selection, while Spencer Johnson is available for the XI. Much depends on Ruturaj Gaikwad at the top. If he fires, it takes pressure off a middle order still trying to settle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Toss: MI choose to bowl first as landmark absence marks Wankhede night Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":49989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49979"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49995,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49979\/revisions\/49995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}