Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians IPL 2026: The return leg of ‘El Clasico’ is unlikely to feature two of the biggest names in India cricket – MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma – at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.
Updated: May 2, 2026 10:33 AM IST
CSK vs MI IPL 2026: The first leg of the ‘El Clasico’ between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians was the first time ever that neither MS Dhoni or Rohit Sharma featured in the IPL game between the two colossal teams. Fans will now be praying to watch the two cricketing superstars as the return leg of the ‘El Clasico’ is set to take place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.
But there might be some bad news in store for the CSK and MI fans as both Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni are unlikely to feature in match no. 44 of the IPL 2026 season due to injuries. Former CSK captain CSK is yet to make his first appearance in the IPL 2026 season after injuring his calf in the pre-season camp.
According to reports, Dhoni will take a final call on his availability around 5pm on Saturday, just a couple of hours before the toss at Chepauk. “He’s such a team-orientated guy. He always wants what’s best for the team and he was worried that if he came there’d be a bit too much of a distraction. Obviously the cameras would be on him a lot. The crowd would be cheering for him and things like that. And he really wanted the team to just be able to go about their job, do our thing. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s not my decision to sort of make,” CSK batting coach Michael Hussey said about Dhoni not turning up at the stadium during match-day.
The former Australian batter said that the CSK team is also waiting to get the go ahead for the former captain when he will be available to play. “I don’t know if it’s tomorrow or maybe the next match after that but he’s progressing really well. I know he’s been upping his running speeds and that was probably the sticking point. I think we’re very confident from a skill perspective with his batting and his wicketkeeping. But it was just making sure that he could maintain good running power particularly towards the back end of an innings where he’s going to have to scamper those ones and twos. So as soon as he’s got the confidence in his calf then I’m sure he’ll give it the tick to ready to go. And so we’re kind of guided by him at the moment. But we’re waiting,” Hussey said about Dhoni.
In Dhoni’s absence, Gujarat wicketkeeper and dashing opener Urvil Patel might return to the Playing 11 with Ayush Mhatre ruled out of the season. If Urvil does play, it could be at the expense of Sarfaraz Khan.
MI, on the other hand, are likely to continue to miss the services of both Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock due to injuries. Rohit injured his hamstring on April 12 in a home fixture against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and has missed four matches on the trot for MI since then.
With both Rohit and De Kock ruled out, Will Jack and Ryan Rickleton are likely to continue opening the batting after putting on 92 runs for the opening wicket in their last match vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. It will be interesting to see if Krish Bhagat will be preferred over Shardul Thakur, who didn’t bat or bowl against SRH in spite of coming in as the ‘Impact Player’.
Rohit bhai kya bolne wale the… woh raaz bhi unhi ke sath reh gaya pic.twitter.com/3gjMbFNyDJ
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 2, 2026
Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians IPL 2026 match no 44 Predicted 12
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Sarfaraz Khan/Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary/Ramakrishna Ghosh, Gurjapneet Singh, Noor Ahmad
Mumbai Indians: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Naman Dhir, Hardik Pandya (c), Tilak Varma, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur/Krish Bhagat, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar
