IPL 2026: No MS Dhoni again; CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad says 'thanks to the legend' at the toss vs Mumbai Indians

NEW DELHI:The anticipation around MS Dhoni’s return was high, but it wasn’t to be as the veteran remained out of action. Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to field against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL 2026 clash at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

Dhoni is yet to feature in IPL 2026. He has been recovering from a calf strain sustained just before the tournament began late last month, and expectations from fans had built up significantly ahead of the marquee encounter.

A day before the match, Dhoni lit up the stadium, entertaining camerapersons, groundstaff and crew members with his lighter side. He was seen playing with the robot dog “Champak” during a practice session at Wankhede Stadium. The five-time IPL-winning captain had a rigorous training session on Tuesday, where he kept wickets and later spent time batting in the nets.

On Wednesday, he had a short initial stint before taking a break, returning later for nearly an hour to face throwdown specialists and fast bowlers.

However, for fans, the wait to see their superstar continues.

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya, after winning the toss, said: "We are gonna bowl first. Lot of boxes were ticked, intensity was there, we needed that game where everyone comes in and chips in. There was a conscious effort that intensity is in your hands, we wanted to just have fun and things went our way. It looks green, but it played really well. Same team."

On the other hand, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad made one change to the XI.

" We would have bowled first as well, but it was a 50-50 call. It looks a good wicket and coming here at Wankhede Stadium, you have to bat well irrespective of whether you’re batting first or bowling first. So it is just about putting up a great show even if you’re batting first. We are doing really well. It’s just that we are not able to cash in on a couple of moments. But I think we pulled it back really well during our bowling in the last game. Even batting, we had started off really well. But as I said, it’s just a couple of moments where we have to make sure we cash in and we get that win. But everyone is confident and ready to go," he said.

"(Wherever you go, men in yellow, there’s a lot of noise?) Yes, obviously all thanks to the legend (Dhoni) who is not here unfortunately. But obviously it is because of him. Everywhere you go, we have a lot of support. So hopefully we’ll make them happy tonight. We’ve got a couple of changes," the CSK captain said.

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah, Krish Bhagat, AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar