In the Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians match, Suryakumar Yadav will lead Mumbai Indians in the absence of Hardik Pandya, while an unchanged Delhi Capitals won the toss and elected to bowl first in the IPL 2026 double-header clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.

Both teams are playing their first afternoon game of the season after winning their respective openers. Pandya was not seen at MI’s practice sessions over the past two days in the national capital.

MI confirmed his absence in a statement: “Hardik Pandya is unwell and hence will not be taking the field today. Suryakumar Yadav will be the captain today.”

Fresh off leading India to the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup title, Suryakumar also confirmed three changes to the XI. Deepak Chahar, Corbin Bosch and Mitchell Santner come in for Pandya, Trent Boult and AM Ghazanfar.

“I’m getting into his shoes today. Winning the first game after 13–14 years gives a lot of confidence. Toss was irrelevant — we wanted to bat first,” Suryakumar said.

DC skipper Axar Patel said his side remains unchanged and is keen to assess home conditions.

“It’s our first match at home. The wicket looks a bit dry and hard. We chased well in the last game — coming back from 26/4 in the powerplay gives the group a lot of confidence,” he said.

“Even the top order knows there are batters down the line who can step up. Playing at home is always an advantage, and our supporters will be behind us.”

DC vs MI IPL 2026: Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals: KL Rahul (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar

Impact Subs: Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi, Sameer Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Naman Dhir, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah

Impact Subs: Mayank Markande, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar