33-year-old leg spinner Raghu Sharma, who represents Punjab in domestic cricket, is making his IPL debut on Saturday, May 2. He received his Mumbai Indians cap from captain Hardik Pandya ahead of the toss of their IPL 2026 match against Chennai Super Kings at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
“We have one debut – the leggie (Raghu Sharma) plays his first game,” Pandya said during the toss.
Raghu was signed by Mumbai Indians as a replacement player for injured Vignesh Puthur last year (in 2025) for Rs 30 lakh but didn’t get a chance to play even one match in the 2025 edition of the world’s richest franchise cricket league.
Prior to making his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians on May 2, Raghu has played four T20 matches so far and has picked up four wickets.
He also has 57 wickets to his name in 12 First Class matches and 18 wickets in 12 List A fixtures.
Raghu, who has only batted one time in four T20 matches played so far, was named in MI’s impact subs list after Hardik won the toss and opted to bat first. He will come into action during the second half of the match.
Ashwani out, Krish out!
For the must-win match against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk, Mumbai Indians have dropped Punjab-based fast bowler Ashwani Kumar from their playing XI. In his place, Krish Bhagat, who also represents Punjab in domestic cricket, is back in the side.
Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, continues to remain on the sidelines. The 39-year-old right-handed batter from Mumbai, last played for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2026 on April 12 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. He suffered hamstring injury while batting in that fixture.
2 changes for CSK
Chennai Super Kings have made three changes to their playing XI for Saturday’s match against Mumbai Indians. Ramakrishna Ghosh, Mukesh Choudhary and Prashant Veer are back in place of Akeal Hosein, Sarfaraz Khan and Gurjapneet Singh.
Akeal picked up four wickets for Chennai Super Kings in their last IPL match against Mumbai Indians.
Playing XIs
Mumbai Indians: Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Robin Minz, Trent Boult, Krish Bhagat, Jasprit Bumrah, Allah Ghazanfar. Impact subs: Raj Bawa, Raghu Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Shardul Thakur, Ashwani Kumar
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (WK), Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary. Impact subs: Kartik Sharma, Akeal Hosein, Sarfaraz Khan, Matthew Short, Gurjapneet Singh
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