The 19th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and all teams are getting ready for their respective opening games of the season. Even the former cricketers and experts are busy analysing every team now as the discussions regarding team combinations have begun. However, when looking at five-time champions Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan Singh feels the franchise cannot have left-handed batsmen Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton in the same playing XI.
Notably, Rickelton opened innings with Rohit Sharma last season and has scored 388 runs in 14 innings at the strike rate of 150.97 with three fifties to his account. Considering that the 29-year-old cricketer had his maiden IPL season, it is a fair performance; As for De Kock, he is coming off an underwhelming season for Kolkata Knight Riders, having mustered only 152 in eight matches at a sub-par strike rate of 129.91.
However, the southpaw was brilliant during his three-year stint with MI from 2019 to 2021, scoring 529, 503 and 297 runs in the respective IPL seasons. This show may see MI prefer De Kock over Rickelton at least to begin with this season. However, with them both being openers and the other opener being Rohit, Harbhajan believes that only one of the two South Africans will start.
I don’t think the MI team management will allow both Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton to start in the playing XI at the same time. Only one of these two guys will be in the starting line-up and making both of them play will be difficult as MI also have Rohit Sharma at the top.
He is to be the main opener, with either Ryan Rickelton or Quinton de Kock at the other end. After that, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma follow at numbers three and four. So for sure, we are not going to see Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton together. Harbhajan said while speaking on JioHotstar’s Game Plan.
Aakash Chopra predicts De Kock to open with Rohit Sharma.
However, Aakash Chopra had a final verdict on who would open the batting for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2026. According to him, De Kock will definitely play, and he also reckoned that the five-time IPL winners will have a lot of selection headache around their overseas players.
MI love their left and right-hand combination as openers. I am sure we will see Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock opening the innings. “This pair helped them lift the trophy in 2019 and 2020. Then the issue is the bigger challenge of accommodating Will Jacks in the line-up.
Does he fit into the scheme of things? Because, there is also Sherfane Rutherford. Sherfane Rutherford has to be in the scheme of things because you want to play him since he bats below and provides an extra bowling option. But Jacks cannot be allowed to do that job (ibid).
He did so throughout the T20 World Cup for England. So that is a problem of plenty but a good one to have. That is a problem of plenty, but a good one to have, and the other part is that they need to have at least two overseas bowlers. Trent Boult will feature.
Then, one out of Mitchell Santner and Allah Ghazanfar has to play. There is Corbin Bosch also. It’s going to be a tough ask. But this is a problem of riches that most teams want. MI has that. Now it is up to them to solve this riddle, Chopra said.