The much-anticipated IPL 2026 has begun. Mumbai Indians (MI) are all set to kick off their campaign by playing a clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Ahead of the match, the “Paltan” will look to break the jinx of losing the season`s opening match. The “Men in Blue and Gold” have been struggling to secure a win in their first match of the tournament since 2012.
Ahead of the match against KKR, MI`s head coach Mahela Jayawardene spoke about the jinx. He feels that there is no other way to break the “hoodoo” than playing a good game of cricket.
“It is the elephant in the room but there is no way for us to prepare differently. If you look at the season that I was involved in, we had close matches, we lost. I think I have spoken to the boys about the intensity being there for that first game. I think that is all we can control,” he told reporters at the Wankhede Stadium.
“That is what I have asked from the guys to go out and play a good game of cricket at that high intensity. Other than that, I don`t see how else we could prepare because we pretty much prepare for each and every game the same way. Hopefully, I can break that hoodoo,” added Jayawardene.
IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians: Full Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert (WK), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sarthak Ranjan, Finn Allen (WK), Rachin Ravindra, Cameron Green, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Akash Deep, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Pathirana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Tejasvi Singh (WK), Daksh Kamra.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock (WK), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, Raghu Sharma, Atharva Ankolekar, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (WK), Allah Ghazanfar, Naman Dhir, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar.
(With PTI Inputs)
