Why is Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya not playing against Delhi Capitals?

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has been ruled out of his team's second match of the Indian Premier League 2026 against the Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 4. Hardik is not well, and Suryakumar Yadav is leading the team in his absence.

"Hardik Pandya is not well, so he is not playing today," Suryakumar Yadav said.

Meanwhile, DC captain Axar Patel has won the toss and invited MI to bat first in the first afternoon game of the 19th season. 

Hardik has been leading the five-time champions since 2024, and after starting on the back foot in his captaincy's first season, the all-rounder was impressive as a leader in 2025. Hardik is renowned for making match-winning contributions with the bat and the ball. 

He joined MI in 2015 and played a big role in their three titles before moving to the Gujarat Titans in 2022. GT lifted the IPL trophy in 2022 and then reached the final in 2023 under Hardik's captaincy. He left the franchise to rejoin Mumbai ahead of the 17th season of the tournament. 

In 153 IPL matches, he has scored 2767 runs at an average of 28.52 and a strike rate of 147.02, including 10 fifties. 

Hardik has taken 79 wickets at an average of 32.03 and an economy of 32.03.

Playing XIs

MI XI 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Naman Dhir, 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

MI impact options - Mayank Markande, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar

DC XI 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Vipraj Nigam, 5 Axar Patel (capt), 6 David Miller, 7 Tristan Stubbs, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Lungi Ngidi, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Mukesh Kumar

DC impact options - Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi, Sameer Rizvi,