IPL 2026: Why is Mitchell Santner not playing MI vs KKR Match 2?

Mumbai Indians take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in the second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

The five-time champions, MI, come into the new season with hope of lifting their sixth crown. With their core intact, they look like one of the stronger teams in this edition. KKR, on the other hand, come on the back of a squad overhaul, and will be looking to better their eighth-placed finish in 2025. One record which stands in their favour is that the home team have not won their first game of an IPL season since 2012.

Toss Update

Hardik Pandya, Mumbai Indians captain, chose to field first after winning the toss. He spoke of playing in front of the home crowd and the wealth of experience in the squad. Ajinkya Rahane, captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders, spoke of staying in the moment and performing against a team they do not have a great record against.

Mitchell Santner misses out, Ghazanfar to play

Mitchell Santner is yet to report to the Mumbai Indians squad, with his duties as New Zealand skipper only culminated at the end of the third T20I against South Africa on March 20. Coach Mahela Jayawardene mentioned that Santner is yet to join due to personal commitments and hopes he will be there soon.

Highly-rated Afghanistan mystery-spinner AM Ghazanfar made his IPL debut after missing the 2025 season through injury. Sherfane Rutherford also makes his debut for the team. For the Kolkata Knight Riders, Cameron Green, Finn Allen and Blessing Muzarabani made their debuts.

What did the captains say?

Hardik Pandya (MI)

We are going to bowl. Looks like a good track, it appears greener than it used to. Let’s see how it plays. This is our fortress, the crowd is behind us and we’re looking to play a good game. We started a couple of weeks earlier, have plenty of experience and a mix of youth. Rohit, Surya, Mitchell Santner – so there’s no shortage of captains; I’m just excited to go out there and perform. We’re going with 6 batters and 5 bowlers.

Ajinkya Rahane (KKR)

We were looking to bowl, never seen this amount of grass at Wankhede. Preparations have been good, couple of camps in Kolkata and in Mumbai as well. Know that MI is a champion team and we’re looking forward to be playing against them. Just stay at the moment and don’t look at the past. A couple of injuries – we’re going with 6 batters and 5 bowlers. Four overseas players – Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Sunil Narine and Blessing Muzarabani.

Playing 11s

Mumbai Indians

Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

Impact Players: Suryakumar Yadav, Corbin Bosch, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Ashwani Kumar

Kolkata Knight Riders

Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Blessing Muzarabani

Impact Players: Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Dubey, Rovman Powell

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