Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth slammed the Mumbai Indians’ tactics to use Suryakumar Yadav as an Impact Player in the IPL 2026 clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. SKY did not field and scored 16 runs off eight balls in the run-chase of 221. Eventually, MI claimed a convincing six-wicket win to start their season on a high.

In the previous season, MI had used Rohit Sharma as an Impact Player. Meanwhile, SKY had recently led India to the T20 World Cup glory and Srikkanth said it was an unfathomable decision to use the experienced batter as an Impact Player. Srikkanth said SKY is a brilliant fielder and MI could have used Sherfane Rutherford as an Impact Player.

Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “It was an unfathomable decision. He is a T20 World Cup-winning captain. It’s not even been one month since he led India to the title. It’s not fair on Surya. And Surya is a brilliant fielder. They should have had Sherfane Rutherford as the Impact Player instead. Surya is a much better fielder than Rutherford. It was a gross injustice to have Surya as Impact Sub.”

The 1983 World Cup-winning player said the Mumbai Indians were not at their best strategically against KKR despite their comprehensive win.

“MI was strategically off. They did not use Boult fully in the powerplay and they brought Bumrah in too late. And I couldn’t understand Bumrah bowling five slower ones in his first over itself. He didn’t bowl his normal delivery with swing and seam, which surprised me,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).

Mumbai Indians will next take on Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, on Saturday.