New Delhi: Shortly before the throw, the broadcaster announced mumbai indians captain Hardik Pandya Will not be available for the match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. A few seconds after the message was posted, Suryakumar Yadav – Smiling, chewing gum and wearing a blue and gold jersey – walked out with team literature, shook hands with Ravi Shastri and then greeted Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel.Later, the Delhi crowd burst into loud cheers when they saw Surya, the T20 World Cup-winning captain.The big question is: why is Surya leading the team and why is Hardik missing such an important game?The moment when Al-Aqsa wins the roll and chooses to confront mumbai indianstalking about his team composition, the focus quickly shifted to Suriya.“(Hardik Pandya) was not fit and he didn’t look good, so he was not fit for today’s game. So let’s start today,” said Surya, stand-in captain for the Delhi Capitals match.
Mumbai Indians started their IPL 2026 season with a six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.Mumbai Indians brought in Deepak Chahar to replace Pandya.“(On the win against KKR) If you win the first game after 13-14 years, there will be a lot of positivity in the camp and we are very happy, but here it is completely different from the Wankhede. We have to take good responsibility and play a good game here. (On the surface) it looks good, the toss doesn’t matter. We wanted to bat first, they wanted to bowl first, but yes, it was nice to bat first. It looked good. We have done very well here when we bat first and defend well.” Quite a lot of changes. Deepak Chahar comes on for Hardik. Corbin Bosch replaces Boulty, a tactical change. Bolti performed well in the last game against Wankhede. Mickey Santner came on in place of Alaa Gazanfar,” Surya said.Axar was playing against Mumbai Indians with the same team. “I chose to bowl first. The first game at home, I wanted to see how the wickets performed. It looked a little dry, a little hard. We chased the target well in the last game. Chasing the target from 26/4 in the powerplay gave the team a lot of confidence. Even the top players know that there are batsmen in the lower order and if they fail, they can step up to the plate. Playing home games is always beneficial. Our Washington, D.C., supporters will be cheering us on. It’s the same team,” Aqsa said. team:Delhi Capitals (Starting Lineup): 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 (Starting XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickton (female), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (centre), Naman Dhir, Sherfan Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bose, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.Here are the substitutes for both teams:Delhi Capitals shock substitutes: Ashutosh Sharma, Ochib Nabi Dar, Samir Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun NairMumbai Indians batting reserves: Mayank Markande, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar
