{"id":8970,"date":"2026-04-04T09:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=8970"},"modified":"2026-04-04T09:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:59:50","slug":"130016790-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=8970","title":{"rendered":"Hardik Pandya: IPL 2026, DC vs MI: Why is Hardik Pandya not playing vs Delhi Capitals? | Cricket News &#8211; The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130016814,imgsize-56144,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/pandya-0404-ipl.jpg\" alt=\"IPL 2026, DC vs MI: Why is Hardik Pandya not playing vs Delhi Capitals?\" title=\"Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL)\">Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss and opted to field against five-time champions Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"1\"\/>&#8220;I choose to bowl first. First match at home, I want to see how the wicket is behaving. <!-- -->It looks a bit dry, a bit hard. We chased well in the last match. To chase down the target from 26\/ 4 in the powerplay, it gives a lot of confidence to the group.<!-- --> Even the top-order know that there are batters in the lower order who can step up if they fail. Playing a home game is always beneficial. Our DC supporters will cheer for us. Same team.,&#8221; Axar said at the toss.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>Mumbai Indians suffered a major blow as their captain <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/player-profile\/hardik-pandya\/63751\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Hardik Pandya<\/a> missed the clash against Delhi Capitals.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>In Pandya\u2019s absence, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/player-profile\/suryakumar-yadav\/11803\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Suryakumar Yadav<\/a> led the side.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2><keyword id=\"628215\" type=\"General\" weightage=\"20\" keywordseo=\"DC-vs-MI\" source=\"Orion\">DC vs MI<\/keyword>: Why isn\u2019t Hardik Pandya playing today?<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/> <\/p>\n<div class=\"wLCOS vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"ap_Bf\">\n<div class=\"ZM4zO\">\n<p><i class=\"bo2C4\"\/> <span>Watch<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <!-- -->Sameer Rizvi on batting approach: simple mindset, big impact for DC<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>Stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav explained the reason and said Pandya isn\u2019t well.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>&#8220;(News on Hardik) He&#8217;s not well, doesn&#8217;t look good, so he was not fit for today&#8217;s game. So just getting into his shoes today. (On the win against KKR) If you win the first game after 13-14 years, there&#8217;s a lot of positivity in the camp, and we&#8217;re very happy, but completely different venue here from Wankhede. We have to take good responsibility and have a good game here,&#8221; Surya said during the toss. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>&#8220;(On the surface) Looks good, The toss was irrelevant. We wanted to bat first, they wanted to bowl first, but yeah, very happy to bat first. Looks good one. We&#8217;ve done here really well when we&#8217;ve batted first and defended. Quite a few changes. Deepak Chahar comes in for Hardik. Corbin Bosch comes in for Boulty, that&#8217;s a tactical change. <!-- -->Boulty had a good game in the last game at Wankhede. And Mitch Santner comes in for Allah Ghazanfar,&#8221; he said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">Playing XIs:<\/span><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"33\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): <\/span>KL Rahul(w), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"37\"\/><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">Mumbai Indians (Playing XI):<\/span> Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Naman Dhir, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"40\"\/><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:<\/span><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"42\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"43\"\/>Delhi Capitals Impact subs: Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi Dar, Sameer Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"45\"\/>Mumbai Indians Impact subs: Mayank Markande, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"47\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\/top-stories\/ipl-2026-dc-vs-mi-why-is-hardik-pandya-not-playing-vs-delhi-capitals\/articleshow\/130016790.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL) NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22612,693,22611,695,22610,22609],"class_list":["post-8970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dc-vs-mi","tag-hardik-pandya","tag-hardik-pandya-not-playing","tag-suryakumar-yadav","tag-why-hardik-pandya-not-playing","tag-why-isnt-hardik-pandya-playing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}