The IPL 2026 match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Mumbai on Thursday will witness a historic first.
Both Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings come into this match in search of a crucial win that would keep their IPL playoff hopes alive.
The Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians are in seventh place with four points from six games, whereas Ruturaj Gaikwad’s Chennai Super Kings are in eighth place with the same number of points from the same number of matches.
First MI vs CSK match without Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni
When Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings take the field at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, it will be the first time the marquee contest will be held without both Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni.
Over the years, both Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have been guiding forces for MI and CSK respectively, and both of them will miss Thursday’s match due to respective injuries.
Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring injury during MI’s match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on 12 April.
He scored 19 runs from 13 balls against RCB before being forced to retire hurt. He has not played any of the matches ever since. From four matches, Rohit has scored 137 runs at a strike-rate of 165.06 in IPL 2026 so far.
MS Dhoni, on the other hand, has missed the first half of CSK’s IPL campaign due to a calf strain and had recently undergone rehabilitation, but has not attained 100% match fitness yet.
The Jharkhand cricketer was reported to play the match against Mumbai Indians, but is now expected to play in CSK’s next match against Gujarat Titans (GT) at Chepauk on 26 April.
MI vs CSK playing XIs
Mumbai Indians: Quinton de Kock(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah, Krish Bhagat, AM Ghazanfar, and Ashwani Kumar.
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Sarfaraz Khan, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, and Mukesh Choudhary.
