Mumbai Indians have started their IPL 2026 campaign with a record win over Kolkata Knight Riders. The five-time champions completed their highest successful chase of IPL history as they overhauled the target
of 221 with relative ease for a six-wicket in at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night. Fresh from his triumph at the T20 World Cup where he led India to a historic campaign, Suryakumar Yadav caught attention as he was used as an Impact Sub during the contest and didn’t field.
MI coach Mahela Jayawardene cleared the air that Suryakumar is carrying a niggle and hence they wanted to give him some more time to recover.
“I hope we don’t create unwanted stories (here), the camp is happy. He had an extra couple of days (off that) he wanted,” Jayawardene told reporters after he was asked why like former India and MI skipper Rohit Sharma last season, Suryakumar was played as an impact substitute.
“He had a little tight groin and he was doing fielding and all that. But I knew I had another five days from this game to the other. I just wanted to give him that extra bit of time. He was even keen at the end to go (and field) for three-four overs. But I said, no, (it’s) just fine’.”
“So please don’t create any stories. It’s just that I have to take precautions. These are very valuable players for me to have them going throughout the season. These are calculated decisions that I and the management make and there is nothing beyond that,” Jayawardene said.
Surya dazzled briefly, hitting 16 off 8 he fell to Kartik Tyagi after walking in to bat at the no.3 spot.
Jayawardene was happy with the performances of his batters including Rohit (78) and Ryan Rickelton (81) who put on a 148-run opening stand in chase after Shardul Thakur (3/39) impressed on a docile wicket.
“Yeah, it is brilliant. It was a good (batting) wicket. When they got to 220, I thought we were a bit poor on execution. We could have probably (not given) 20 runs extra. But the way Ro (Rohit) and Ryan batted, it was exquisite to watch,” Jayawardene said.
He also praised player-of-the-match Shardul Thakur’s performance on a docile wicket where he took 3/39.
“It was, again, tactical, because for us to use Allah (AM Ghazanfar), if you’re using Hardik (Pandya) as well up front, then can’t have too many new ball bowlers,” Jayawardene said on Thakur.
“I needed some options in the middle and then at the back end and that was the thinking when we traded Shardul. It was an example of us thinking differently with our bowling combinations to suit different opposition and how we want to go about it,” he added.
