Former India player Harbhajan Singh has opined that the Mumbai Indians (MI) won’t be able to field Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton together in their playing combination in IPL 2026. He reasoned that the Mumbai-based franchise has a plethora of Indian batting options, with Rohit Sharma taking one of the opening spots.

The Mumbai Indians retained Ryan Rickelton ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. They acquired Quinton de Kock for ₹1 crore as a second overseas wicketkeeper-batter at the mini-auction last year.

During a discussion on Star Sports, Harbhajan replied in the negative when asked whether the Mumbai Indians would field both De Kock and Rickelton in their playing XI, just like South Africa did in the T20 World Cup 2026.

“I don’t think they will start with both of them together. I think it will be either Ryan Rickelton playing or De Kock playing. Either of these two guys will feature in the XI. Playing these two guys in the top order will be difficult because Mumbai have a lot of local players like Rohit Sharma,” he said.

The former MI spinner highlighted that the franchise won’t be able to accommodate two overseas top-order batters due to the presence of the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma.

“He (Rohit) will have to open, of course, with either Ryan Rickelton or De Kock, and then Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, and many other good players are there. So I don’t think we will see them playing together,” Harbhajan observed.

Ryan Rickelton amassed 388 runs at a strike rate of 150.97 in 14 innings in IPL 2025. Quinton de Kock, who played for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) last season, aggregated 152 runs at a strike rate of 129.91 in eight innings.

“Ghazanfar brings a lot of variations to the table” – Harbhajan Singh on the Mumbai Indians’ other selection conundrum heading into IPL 2026

In the same discussion, Harbhajan Singh was asked about the Mumbai Indians potentially needing to choose between Mitchell Santner and Allah Ghazanfar as their frontline spinner in IPL 2026.

“As far as I know and what my knowledge says, I think we will get to see Ghazanfar playing most of the games than Santner because Ghazanfar brings a lot of variations to the table,” he responded.

While opining that Ghazanfar would be MI’s first-choice specialist spinner, the cricketer-turned-commentator added that Santner could also be a part of the XI on spin-friendly surfaces.

“He is someone people haven’t seen much. They have not played against him. That’s what will give him that edge. I think Santner will play in a few games here and there, probably in Chennai or those surfaces where it spins, but I think Ghazanfar will continue to play on all kinds of surfaces and every game,” Harbhajan observed.

The Mumbai Indians bought Allah Ghazanfar for ₹4.80 crore at the IPL 2025 auction, but the Afghanistan spinner was ruled out of the last season’s tournament due to a fracture in his back. Mitchell Santner played 13 games for MI in IPL 2025, picking up 10 wickets at an economy rate of 7.92.