IPL 2026: Hardik Pandya wins toss, elects to bat first against Chennai Super Kings

In the IPL 2026 match against Chennai Super Kings CSK Mumbai Indians MI skipper Hardik Pandya has won the toss and elected to bat first at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in ChennaiThe Paltan will enter the clash with one change where Krish Bhagat will come in place of Ashwani KumarAfter winning the toss MIs Hardik said We are gonna bat first Looks like a good track During the World Cup we played against Zimbabwe where it played really well Just the way we batted last game thought we should give one more opportunity to the batters to kind of score runs as much as possible On having to win every game now Oh yeah I think for the last eight games it has been that Now even more We have to just come out and kind of play our best cricket and see what happens Mood in the dressing room Its always great We are professionals We are supposed to play good cricket We are supposed to turn up every time So yeah the mood has been good Its been challenging but we have a lot to play for as you said six games make sure that we give the best opportunity for ourselves to qualify And at the same point of time its about playing for pride as well You play the sport to enjoy you play the sport to win So yeah these are the all things which we have kind of spoken about and kind of focusing on Area to improve I think just play good cricket overall Those moments where we have lost games not overall I feel in 40 overs I think we have lost those games in maybe 23 overs which were big moments in the game We could not get it to our side and I think that has cost us games So today overall I think if we can play a better game of cricket overall everyone can chip in not drop those half chances create half chances score as many runs as possible I think we will be in a good place We have one debut The leggie Raghu Sharma plays his first game for MI And Krish Bhagat comes back for AshwaniOn the other hand the Super Kings will head into the match with two changes Kartik Sharma will make way for Ramakrishna Ghosh Prashant Veer and Mukesh Choudhary will replace Akeal Hosein and Gurjapneet Singh respectivelyCSKs captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said We were looking to bat first but the wicket looks really good A bit on the drier side but I dont think it will change too much throughout the course of the game so really happy to bowl first as well It was a bit difficult last game We were put into a tough situation but we recovered really well we got to a competitive score And I felt even after that we bowled really well in patches whoever was bowling A bit tough track to bat on last game but confidencewise everyone is really up there What do you tell the boys when in a tough spot Well nothing just stick to your process keep it really simple try and do the basics right Yes its a pressure its a mustwin game but at the end you have to do your process right and the result will come Weve got a couple of changes Ramakrishna Ghosh comes in for Gurjapneet and Prashant Veer comes in for AkealIPL 2026 Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings Confirmed Playing XIsMumbai Indians Will Jacks Ryan Rickelton WK Naman Dhir Suryakumar Yadav Tilak Varma Hardik Pandya C Robin Minz Krish Bhagat Trent Boult Jasprit Bumrah AM GhazanfarChennai Super Kings Sanju Samson WK Ruturaj Gaikwad C Urvil Patel Dewald Brevis Shivam Dube Jamie Overton Ramakrishna Ghosh Prashant Veer Noor Ahmad Anshul Kamboj Mukesh Choudhary