Why Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya is not playing in MI vs LSG IPL 2026 match

Hardik Pandya did not play for Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2026 match against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.

Suryakumar Yadav came out for the toss in his place and said that Hardik was unwell. Later, Mumbai Indians confirmed that the captain was dealing with back spasms.

Suryakumar, who has been under criticism for his form this season, was seen interacting with LSG captain Rishabh Pant at the toss. He said he was filling in for Hardik.

“He is not well tonight, so I'm just going into his shoes,” said Suryakumar at the toss.

Mumbai Indians have had a slow start to the season and are currently ninth on the points table with four points, the same as Lucknow Super Giants, who are at the bottom.

Hardik has also struggled this season with both bat and ball. He has scored 146 runs in eight innings at an average of 20.85 and a strike rate of 136.44.

With skipper Hardik Pandya sitting out, Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bowl first against Lucknow Super Giants.

With Pandya out, the Mumbai Indians brought in Corbin Bosch in place of Trent Boult, while Rohit Sharma is back in the mix after an injury break and made it to the Impact Bench.

Lucknow Super Giants also made some changes in their Playing XI, handing a debut to Josh Inglis while Mukul Choudhary made way for Akshat Raghuwanshi.

Teams

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma

Impact Player options for MI - Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur, and Trent Boult.

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav

Impact Player options for LSG - Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Mayank Yadav, Shahbaz Ahamad, and Abdul Samad.