MI join Pune Warriors India in unique IPL captaincy club

Mumbai Indians (MI) are locking horns against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 clash, on Wednesday, May 20 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Hardik Pandya finally made a comeback to lead MI against the Ajinkya Rahane-led side.

Unwanted record for MI

The star India all-rounder missed MI's last thre games because of back spasms. In Hardik's absence, Suryakumar Yadav took over the captaincy in games against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 4 and May 10 respectively. However, Jasprit Bumrah had lead MI in game against Punjab Kings on May 16, as Suryakumar wasn't available due to personal reasons.

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With Hardik Pandya's comeback as MI skipper has led MI become the second franchise in the history of the IPL to feature three different captains in three back-to-back matches.

Previously, the same incident took place in the 2013 edition, when Pune Warriors India featured Angelo Mathews, Ross Taylor and Aaron Finch as skippers in three straight games.

Winning the toss, Ajinkya Rahane chose to bowl first against MI. Surprisingly, KKR dismissed four MI batters at just 57 runs. KKR pacer Saurabh Dubey clinched crucial wickets of Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav on cheap scores of 15 off 13 and 15 off 6 respectively. Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya stayed unbeaten at the crease, before rain stopped the play.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI):

Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Saurabh Dubey
Kolkata Knight Riders

Impact subs: Finn Allen, Vaibhav Arora, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI):

Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Raghu Sharma

Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: Shardul Thakur, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Krish Bhagat, AM Ghazanfar