Josh Hazlewood Dropped; Hardik Pandya's MI Win Toss, Ask RCB To Bat First

MI vs RCB Toss - (Source: ScreenGrab/Hotstar)

On Sunday, April 12, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru locked horns at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Both teams are fresh off a defeat and are desperately eyeing a win.

For the toss, two captains - Hardik Pandya and Rajat Patidar walked down the ground for the coin flip. The luck favoured hosts Mumbai Indians who opted to field first.

Talking about the team changes, Mumbai Indians have made a couple of changes. Mayank Markande comes in for Deepak Chahar and Mitchell Santner replaces Allah Ghazanfar.

For RCB, Jacob Duffy is back in the playing XI.

MI vs RCB IPL 2026: Playing XIs

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Playing XI : Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Tim David, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma

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Mumbai Indians Playing XI : Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Trent Boult, Mayank Markande, Jasprit Bumrah

MI vs RCB IPL 2026: Captains Thought

Hardik Pandya: "We are going to bowl first. Looks like a good wicket. It is always good to bat second at Wankhede. It is a big game. Just to come out and play good cricket. Just enjoy the sport. Oh yeah! We requested them to make good wickets and we are getting some. Yes, but over the years at Wankhede, chasing is what the teams have done and the dew comes in as well. Just one change. Santner comes in for Ghazanfar. Mayank comes in for Deepak. "

Rajat Patidar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru Captain): We wanted to bowl first as well. Definitely, I think we playing our 3rd game, sorry 4th game. There are a lot of positives. Especially from the last game. We were 97/6 and then to score 201. We enjoy a lot coming here. A lot of blue here. Just one change. Duffy comes in place of Hazlewood.

MI vs RCB IPL 2026: Impact Subs

Mumbai Indians: Sherfane Rutherford, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Raj Angad Bawa

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rasikh Dar Salam, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Mangesh Yadav

Why Is Josh Hazlewood Not Playing Today?

Josh Hazlewood returned to IPL against RR after a long injury setback. The fans were excited to see their star bowler return. However, the match didn't go as expected and Hazlewood was humbled by 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Notably, the southpaw slammed 18 runs off one over. Eventually, he registered the figures of 2/44 in his four overs. Therefore, it was a tactical decision and RCB brought in Jacob Duffy, who has been in brilliant form and didn't do anything wrong to be left out of the playing XI.

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