IPL 2026, MI vs CSK 33rd Match Match Preview

Big picture – Rohit vs Dhoni?

They first shared a playing field on October 1, 2006, when Rohit Sharma played for India Red and MS Dhoni for India Blue in the 50-overs Challenger Trophy, in Chennai. That was the first of 652 matches across formats that they’ve been involved in either as team-mates or opponents.

On Thursday, nearly 20 years on from that first meeting, there’s a chance that Rohit and Dhoni will occupy the same patch of turf again. There is a chance Rohit could be fit to start after missing Mumbai Indians’ (MI) last two games with a hamstring issue. And Dhoni could play his first game of IPL 2026 if Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) training sessions are anything to go by: he has not only batted but even kept wickets (which he never practised in the nets even at his peak), suggesting he could be readying his troublesome calves for match action.

It’s a testament to both players that they remain the faces of their franchises even in 2026, but it can also be read as a bit of an indictment, a symbol of how far the IPL’s two most successful teams have fallen behind other, more futuristic line-ups that are now setting the terms.

But results can unduly colour the way teams are perceived, and MI and CSK could both consider themselves better than their position on the IPL 2026 points table – six games each, two wins each – would suggest.

CSK might wonder how their season might look had they not suffered so many injuries, the latest of which has ended the season of their top run-getter so far, Ayush Mhatre (201 runs at a strike rate of 177.87). They’ve used 18 players across their six games, and a 19th – Dhoni? – could come in on Thursday.

MI have used even more players – 20, the most of any team. In their case, form has been as much of a reason for this as fitness.

But they have grounds for positivity now, after a potentially season-turning win over Gujarat Titans (GT) in their last game. Their batters haven’t all clicked just yet, but they seem to have settled on a plausible shape for their line-up, with Naman Dhir’s promotion offsetting the spin weaknesses of the rest of their middle order, and unlocking the pace-hitting beast within Tilak Varma. Throw in Will Jacks, who has joined the squad and is available to play on Thursday, and potentially Rohit, and MI’s batting doesn’t look quite so far behind the IPL’s pace-setters.

The bowling, too, might have turned a corner, with an overhauled combination – two fresh faces among the domestic seamers, and both Mitchell Santner and AM Ghazanfar featuring in the spin attack – rolling GT over for 100, with Jasprit Bumrah ending a long and puzzling wicket drought along the way.

Going into Thursday’s contest, then, MI could well be the more settled – or at least less unsettled – combination of the two teams. What influence that has on the result remains to be seen.

Form guide

Mumbai Indians: WLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Chennai Super Kings: LWWLL

Key question

Team news

Who will Jacks replace, if he plays? Sherfane Rutherford is the obvious option; it isn’t clear that No. 7 is the ideal spot for him, and Jacks brings extra utility with his offspin even if he only manages the same batting impact in that role. On the other hand, MI could play both of them and leave out one of their two overseas spinners; with Hardik Pandya in the XI, they can afford to lose a frontline bowling option to bring in a batting allrounder.

If Rohit is fit, he will come in for Danish Malewar.

Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma/Danish Malewar, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Naman Dhir, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Will Jacks/Sherfane Rutherford, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 AM Ghazanfar/Will Jacks, 10 Krish Bhagat, 11 Jasprit Bumrah, 12 Ashwani Kumar.

Who replaces Mhatre? Urvil Patel, who came into the squad towards the tail-end of IPL 2025 and smashed 68 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 212.5, seems the obvious choice. But if CSK make the obvious choice, and if Dhoni is fit, how do they proceed?

Perhaps one way to go is to leave out Matthew Short, who began well in CSK’s last game against SRH, conceding just 13 from his first two overs as a powerplay match-up offspinner before his night went downhill – Abhishek Sharma collared him in a 25-ball third over, and then he plodded his way to 34 off 30 balls as CSK lost steam through the back half of their chase.

Chennai Super Kings (probable): 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Urvil Patel, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 Sarfaraz Khan, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Matthew Short/MS Dhoni, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Anshul Kamboj, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Mukesh Choudhary/Matt Henry/Akeal Hosein, 12 Gurjapneet Singh.

In the spotlight

After taking time off for personal reasons, Will Jacks has joined the MI squad. His presence gives MI increased flexibility – they could play an extra batter or fast bowler rather than a frontline spinner against certain line-ups, for instance – but what they might most want from him is the ability to take over the finisher’s role. Naman Dhir started the season there but has now moved up the order, and the other options MI have for that role – Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya and Sherfane Rutherford – all prefer coming in slightly earlier. Jacks is a versatile player, but does he have it in him to come in at the death and start hitting sixes immediately?

Shivam Dube is typically the only left-hand batter in CSK’s top eight. His entry point, then, could be key to how much pressure CSK are able to apply on MI’s bowling combinations. If they can have Dube at the crease by around the halfway point of their innings, they could affect MI’s ability to use Mitchell Santner’s left-arm spin. With Dube and Dewald Brevis in their middle order, CSK should theoretically be one of the hardest teams in the league to bowl spin against.

Stats and trivia

CSK have won four of their last five games against MI. The most recent meeting, however, was a nine-wicket MI win at the Wankhede last year featuring unbeaten half-centuries from Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav.

MI could be just the team for Ruturaj Gaikwad to find some form against. He has made three half-centuries in nine innings against MI, including two in his last two games.

Gaikwad also enjoys facing Jasprit Bumrah: in three innings, the match-up has produced 29 in 17 balls, with no dismissal. Their rivalry has also produced one of the most iconic shots of the CSK-MI rivalry: a nonchalant sweep for six off the last ball of CSK’s innings in Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Pitch and conditions

Over recent matches, Pitch 7 at the Wankhede has defied the venue’s reputation in multiple ways. It hasn’t been particularly high-scoring (the last six T20s here have produced an average first-innings total of 179), it has tended to favour the team batting first (four wins and two losses in these six games, with the run rate dipping from 8.98 in the first innings to 8.57 in the second), and spinners have been significantly more economical (economy rate of 7.71) than the fast bowlers (9.38). For all that, though, the team winning the toss is still likely to want to chase given Mumbai’s propensity for dew, which will be heightened by daytime temperatures approaching the mid-30s (Celsius).

Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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