Toss Mumbai Indians chose to bowl vs Rajasthan Royals
Mumbai Indians (MI) won the toss in their final game of IPL 2026 and chose to bowl on a hot, humid afternoon at the Wankhede Stadium. While teams often prefer to bat first in afternoon games, MI captain Hardik Pandya felt the pitch for this match – Pitch No. 6 – tends to get better for batting as matches progress. Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag said he would have preferred to chase too.
This is a must-win game for RR. A win takes them into the playoffs, and a defeat leaves them out of contention, with the last league game of the season – later tonight in Kolkata – between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Capitals (DC) determining whether KKR or Punjab Kings (PBKS) claim the final playoffs spot. MI are already out of contention.
RR returned to full strength for this high-stakes game, with Parag and Ravindra Jadeja returning from their respective injuries, and Nandre Burger coming into the seam attack. Jadeja, interestingly, starts on the bench, which means he could be limited to a bowling-only role as Impact Player, unless he is subbed in for a top-order batter upon his dismissal.
MI, meanwhile, rested Jasprit Bumrah for their final game of the season, and brought Shardul Thakur into their attack. Fans – including the 20,000 children in the stands as part of the Education and Sports for All (ESA) initiative – will have to wait until IPL 2027 for the next installment of Bumrah vs Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, starts on the Impact Player bench.
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 4 Riyan Parag (capt), 5 Donovan Ferreira, 6 Shubham Dubey, 7 Dasun Shanaka, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Nandre Burger, 10 Yash Raj Punja, 11 Brijesh Sharma.
Impact bench: Ravindra Jadeja, Sushant Mishra, Aman Rao Perala, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande.
Mumbai Indians: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Naman Dhir, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Will Jacks, 7 Corbin Bosch, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 AM Ghazanfar, 11 Raghu Sharma.
Impact bench: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Krish Bhagat, Trent Boult.
