Mumbai Indians will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday. MI has assembled a potent squad and they are one of the favourites to not only make it to the playoffs but also go all the way.

Having players like Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Trent Boult, and Jasprit Bumrah is a luxury and MI would aim to execute their plans. 

One hole which can lead to their downfall is the spin department but Mitchell Santner is one of the guile spinners going around. How well Mayank Markande will perform in the middle overs, will hold MI’s fate in the tournament.

On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders’ season has been plummeted with injury woes, even before it has taken flight. After Mustafizur Rahman was released, KKR’s fast bowlers like Harshit Rana and Akash Deep have been ruled out with injuries. Furthermore, Matheesha Pathirana is still awaiting his fitness clearance from Sri Lankan cricket.

Ajinkya Rahane will look to lead from the front and make the most of his experience at the top level. 

Head to Head: Matches: 35, Won by MI: 24, Won by KKR: 11.

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

KKR Full squad: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Rahul Tripathi, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Cameron Green, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Prashant Solanki.