Mumbai Indians (MI) will begin their hunt for a record sixth Indian Premier League (IPL) title when they host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in the season’s second match on Sunday.
(IPL 2026 points table)
The Hardik Pandya-led side have not won the IPL title since 2020, whereas the Kolkata Knight Riders will aim to clinch their fourth IPL title, and their first since 2024.
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Match Logistics
The Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders match will be held at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday (29 March), with the match starting at 7.30 pm IST.
The match will be telecast LIVE on the Star Sports Network TV channels, whereas LIVE streaming will be available on JioHotstar app and website. A JioHotstar subscription is required to watch all IPL matches.
Tickets for the match is available on the BookMyShow app and website.
Head-to-head record
Both Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have locked horns in a total of 35 matches. Mumbai Indians have won 24 of those matches, whereas Kolkata Knight Riders have managed to win just 11 matches.
One of the most memorable matches between the two teams came in IPL 2024, when KKR ended their 12-year winless run in Mumbai. Having been asked to bat first, Shreyas Iyer’s side were once reeling at 57/5, but a confident recovery from Venkatesh Iyer (70) and Manish Pandey (42) led KKR to 169. In their reply, Mumbai Indians were bowled out for 145 in 18.5 overs, with Mitchell Starc registering figures of 4/33.
At the Wankhede Stadium, the two teams have locked horns in 12 matches, with the Mumbai Indians enjoying a 10-2 win-loss record against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Team News and Predicted XI
For Mumbai Indians, Will Jacks and Mitchell Santner will miss the KKR game as they have asked for an extended break, according to head coach Mahela Jayawardene.
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who recently underwent strength and conditioning at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, is fit and will play the season opener. While Rohit Sharma is set to open the innings for the Mumbai Indians once again, the other opener’s slot could be a battle between the South African duo of Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton.
For Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, their pace bowling attack looks depleted, with Harshit Rana and Akash Deep being ruled out of the tournament due to injuries.
KKR have announced Navdeep Saina as a replacement for Harshit Rana, whereas Saurabh Dubey replaces Akash Deep in the squad. And after releasing Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman following the IPL 2026 mini-auction, KKR have signed Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani as his replacement.
The three-time champions will also miss Sri Lanka pacer Matheesha Pathirana for the start of IPL 2026 as he is recovering from a calf injury that he sustained during the T20 World Cup.
Mumbai Indians predicted XI: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock/Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (Captain), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Allah Ghazanfar.
Kolkata Knight Riders predicted XI: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Cameron Green, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Rachin Ravindra, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Kartik Tyagi.
Key players to watch
Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be one of the most important players to keep an eye out on. Bumrah will be lethal against KKR’s new opening pair in the powerplay. Suryakumar Yadav, who scored a whopping 717 runs from 16 matches in IPL 2025, will once again look to fire on all cylinders this time around.
During the T20 World Cup match against USA, SKY scored an unbeaten 84 and helped India post 161 from being in a dangerous position at 77/6 at one stage.
For KKR, their ₹25 crore signing Cameron Green will have his task cut out as he prepares to face his former side. Green had missed the IPL 2025 season due to an injury. He had a pretty decent IPL 2024 season with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), scoring 255 runs and taking 10 wickets from 13 matches.
Pitch report
Surface + Grass: The Wankhede Stadium pitch is expected to be a high-scoring one. The pitch is made of red soil, and because the bounce is predictable, batters will be able to trust the surface and play through the line. The outfield is quick and there are relatively short boundaries at the ground, which means that even mistimed shots could translate to boundaries.
New ball (3-4 overs): When an IPL season starts, the groundstaff usually leave out a thin layer of grass on the surface. This green tinge helps to maintain the soil together, and bowlers can expect genuine swing and seam movement in the first three-four overs.
Middle overs: The middle overs could assist bowlers if they use variations, as has been the case with two-paced surfaces like Wankhede Stadium in recent times. Spinners like Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy could be up against the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya in the middle overs, and they are two batters who could look to counter-attack.
Dew + toss call: The dew at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday could settle around the 14th or 15th over of the run chase. This could be a nightmare for spinners like Varun and Narine, as the ball could start getting slippery. The humidity is expected to go up to 76 % at 10 pm, from 67 % at toss time (7 pm) , according to Accuweather.com. The team winning the toss should field first.
Par score range: If batting first, any total more than 195 runs is considered ideal at the Wankhede Stadium. Any total below 180 could be easily chased down because of the skidding ball in the second innings.
Match prediction
Google Gemini predicts a Mumbai Indians victory, saying: “Mumbai Indians are expected to start their 2026 campaign with a victory. Their familiarity with the red soil conditions and KKR’s weakened pace battery make them the statistically superior side for this encounter.”
ChatGPT says: “The most likely outcome is that the Mumbai Indians control the game more consistently across both innings, which is why I’d predict them to win this matchup, unless Kolkata produce an exceptional batting effort or a standout individual performance that disrupts the flow.”
Grok also predicts Mumbai Indians to win the match. “Mumbai Indians (MI) are favorites to win this match. The combination of home ground, historical dominance at Wankhede, red-soil bounce suiting their pace attack (especially in the powerplay), and the crowd factor tilts it toward MI. If they bat first and post 180+, defending could be tough with dew, but MI’s bowling depth should handle it better than in away games,” says Grok.
Where to Watch
In India, the MI vs KKR match will be telecast on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 1 Hindi. The first ball will be bowled at 7.30 pm IST. Fans in India can also stream the match LIVE on the JioHotstar app and website. Fans in the United Kingdom can watch the match on Sky Sports Cricket, whereas fans in Australia can watch the match on either Fox Sports or Kayo Sports.