Mumbai Indians are taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first of the two IPL 2023 matches on Sunday. The match is being played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the home team were handed a bit of a blow when their regular captain Rohit Sharma did not turn up for the toss alongside Kolkata's Nitish Rana. It was Suryakumar Yadav who spun the coin in Rohit's absence.
Notably, MI won the toss and opted to field first in this match. In another big news from the Mumbai camp, the Blue and Gold Brigade handed a debut to Arjun Tendulkar who is playing his first IPL match two years after he was bought by the franchise. Other than Arjun, Duan Jansen is also playing his first game. Duan happens to be the twin brother of Marco and a left-arm seamer. During the 6ixty, Duan was one of the best bowlers in the competition and played a pivotal role in his team's championship winning run.
At the toss, when MI's stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav was asked where is Rohit, he explained why he couldn't be part of the team's starting 11.
"Rohit is out, he has a stomach bug," Suryakumar said.
However, interestingly, the Hitman can still play a part in this match as he has been named in the Impact Sub list. With the new rule allowing players to replace any other player at any point in the match, MI can use his services if he feels better before the start of the run-chase.
MI vs KKR Playing 11s:
Playing XIs:
MI: Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Arjun Tendulkar, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Riley Meredith
KKR: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana (capt), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy