Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians had met each other in the second qualifier in the previous season of the IPL, with the former prevailing after Shreyas Iyer scored a majestic 97. On Thursday, both of these two teams will take on each other at the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala, but in a very different capacity.
While Mumbai Indians have been knocked out of IPL 2026, Punjab Kings have lost four matches on the bounce after getting off to a dream start. The Mohali-based franchise had posted a decent score of 210 runs on the board against Delhi Capitals but could not defend it despite getting early Powerplay wickets.
Some of Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy calls were questioned when he decided not to give any overs to veteran leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. However, barring Arshdeep Singh, PBKS’ pacers could not hit the right areas.
Though, Priyansh Arya and Shreyas Iyer scored runs in the last game, which was a positive for PBKS.
On the other hand, MI can afford to give chances to rookie players with their season done and dusted. The five-time champions can also rest Jasprit Bumrah, who has been far from his best.
Head to Head: Matches: 35, Won by MI: 17, Won by PBKS: 18.
Mumbai Indians Squad: Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Raghu Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur, Quinton de Kock, Hardik Pandya, Keshav Maharaj, Ashwani Kumar, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, Danish Malewar, Krish Bhagat, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar
Punjab Kings Squad: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Ben Dwarshuis, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Vishnu Vinod, Praveen Dubey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Lockie Ferguson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Nehal Wadhera, Mitchell Owen, Harnoor Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyla Avinash, Vishal Nishad
