16 April,2026 03:30 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Krish Bhagat (Pic: Mumbai Indians)
The Mumbai Indians (MI) are all set to clash against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL 2026 match on Thursday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Ahead of the match, MI's management has named Krish Bhagat as the replacement for Atharva Ankolekar, who has been ruled out of the league due to injury.
Bhagat, who plays for Punjab, is a right-arm pacer and is also handy with the bat. The franchise's official social media handle shared a post, providing an update on Akolekar's replacement. "Mumbai Indians sign Krish Bhagat as a replacement player. Mumbai Indians have named Krish Bhagat as a replacement for Atharva Ankolekar, who has been ruled out of IPL 2026," read the post's caption.
Additionally, it will be interesting to see if Mumbai's veteran batsman Rohit Sharma manages to make his appearance for the match.
Earlier, the right-handed batsman had retired hurt on the score of 19 runs during the match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). However, there are speculations that the 38-year-old batsman will likely feature in the match as an Impact Player.
The clash will be one to watch out for as the opponent team will be led by Shreyas Iyer, who is well aware of Wankhede's conditions.
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (wk), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Atharva Ankolekar, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, AM Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Mohammad Izhar, Raghu Sharma.
Punjab Kings: Marcus Stoinis, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shashank Singh, Praveen Dubey, Lockie Ferguson, Shreyas Iyer, Ben Dwarshuis, Vishnu Vinod (WK), Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur, Azmatullah Omarzai, Vyshak Vijay Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Harpreet Brar, Priyansh Arya, Suryansh Shedge, Cooper Conolly, Mitchell Owen, Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Singh, Musheer Khan, Vishal Nishad.
