MI's musical chairs: Mumbai Indians field 24th player in IPL 2026 vs LSG as season slips away

Mumbai Indians brought in Raj Angad Bawa for their IPL 2026 match against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. He became the 24th player to represent the team this season, the highest number used by any side this year.MI have won only two of their nine matches so far. A defeat against LSG would end their campaign.Bawa replaced captain Hardik Pandya, who missed the match due to a back spasm.This is not the first time MI have used 24 players in a season. They had done the same in IPL 2008 and again in 2012. The team finished fifth in 2008 and third in 2012.Hardik has also had a difficult season. He has scored 146 runs in eight innings at an average of 20.85 and a strike rate of 136.44.With Hardik unavailable, Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first. They also brought in Corbin Bosch in place of Trent Boult. Rohit Sharma returned after an injury break and was included in the Impact Player list.Lucknow Super Giants made changes as well. Josh Inglis made his debut, while Mukul Choudhary was replaced by Akshat Raghuwanshi.Teams:Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu SharmaImpact Player options for MI - Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur, and Trent Boult.Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince YadavImpact Player options for LSG - Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Mayank Yadav, Shahbaz Ahamad, and Abdul Samad.