No MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma yet again as Mumbai Indians opt to bat against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk

MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma remained relegated to the bench as Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to bat in their second meeting against fellow five-time Indian Premier League champions Chennai Super Kings this season. Dhoni is yet to make an appearance in the 19th IPL season, having been sidelined due to a calf injury, while Rohit has not been in action since MI's home game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru due to a hamstring injury.

Both teams made changes in the second 'El Clasico' of the season, but the two icons were not included in the playing XIs. Mumbai Indians handed a debut to 33-year-old Punjab leg-spinner Raghu Sharma and brought Krish Bhagat back in place of left-arm quick Ashwani Kumar. CSK , on the other hand, brought all-rounder Ramakrishna Ghosh in place of Gurjapneet Singh while Akeal Hosein made way for Prashant Veer.

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Pandya urges MI to give themselves 'best opportunity to qualify'

"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," Pandya said during the toss, on his decision to bat.

"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. It's 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, it's 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," he added, on the must-win situation that MI face in each of their remaining games.

Both iconic franchises desperately need a victory to stay afloat in the playoffs race but for Mumbai Indians, who currently are ninth out of 10 teams, another defeat could officially mark the end of their campaign.

CSK had thrashed MI by 103 runs when the two sides had faced each other at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium earlier this season.

CSK vs MI, IPL 2026 Playing XIs

Chennai 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

Mumbai Indians: Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton(wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Robin Minz, Trent Boult, Krish Bhagat, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar