Why Shardul Thakur continues to bat after MI uses Danish as impact substitute – explained

Shardul Thakur Come out and play ball mumbai indians on his team with chennai super kings (CSK) will take part in the IPL 2026 on Thursday. Interestingly, Shardul Thakur is not part of Mumbai’s starting XI or even an influential player. Mumbai have used opener Danish Malewal as their impact player in place of Alaga Zamfar. Shardul Thakur struck out in the 13th over of the second innings, Noor Ahmad was out Hardik Pandya and Shelvan Rutherford on consecutive passes. Why did Shardul come to bat?Shardul Thakur came on as a concussion replacement for Mitchell Santner, who suffered an injury while trying to catch a ball in the first innings. Santner took one wicket and conceded 44 runs in four overs before getting injured. At the time of writing, Mumbai Indians’ score is 95 to 7.Earlier in the match, Sanju Samson scored his fifth IPL hundred. He reached the landmark with a boundary off Krish Bhagat on the last ball of the innings. This is his second hundred of the season, his second for Chennai Super Kings and his fifth in the IPL.Samson smashed 101 off 54 balls to help Chennai Super Kings reach 207 for 6. He held on till the end and the wicket collapsed at the other end.He hit 10 fours and 6 sixes in the innings.For Mumbai Indians, AM Ghazanfar and Ashwani Kumar took two wickets each while Jasprit Bumrah replied with figures of 1 for 31.