Despite being the most successful team, this stain has been there for 13 years, will the fate of Mumbai Indians change today?

New Delhi. In the second match of IPL 2026, Mumbai Indians will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) today. This match between the two teams will be played at Wankhede Cricket Stadium in Mumbai. Mumbai Indians is the most successful franchise of IPL. The team has won the IPL title 5 times. Despite this, for the last 13 years the team has repeatedly failed in trying to erase a 'stain'. It remains to be seen whether the fortunes of the team captained by Hardik Pandya changes in today's match or not.

Actually, Mumbai has not been able to win its first match in the tournament for the last 13 years. Mumbai Indians last started the Indian Premier League season with a win in 2012. Since then, every time the team has faced defeat in the first match of the tournament. Under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, Mumbai would like to get rid of this bad record this time. In IPL 2026, Mumbai team looks very strong on paper.

The team has three strong opening batsmen in the form of Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton. Mumbai's middle order has also looked quite balanced. In the middle order, the team has strong batsmen in the form of Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dheer. Along with this, the team has also bought Sherfane Rutherford in the auction, who can single-handedly change the course of any match. At the same time, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacques and Shardul Thakur can make important contributions with both bat and ball. Jax's recent form has also been quite excellent.

In bowling, Jasprit Bumrah will be seen commanding the pace attack of the team. Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult will support Bumrah. At the same time, in the spin department, the team has two good spinners in the form of Allah Ghazanfar and Mitchell Santner. Along with this, the team also has the option of Mayank Markande.

Mumbai's tremendous record in Wankhede
The record of Mumbai Indians against KKR at Wankhede ground has also been excellent. Out of the last 12 matches played between the two teams at Wankhede, KKR has been able to win only two matches. A total of 35 matches have been played between Mumbai and KKR in the IPL so far, out of which Mumbai has won 24 matches while KKR has won 11 matches.