Quinton de Kock returned to the Mumbai Indians playing XI for the first time in five years. In the middle, he played for Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders, but failed to find success or live up to the high expectations, especially in terms of consistency. Ahead of IPL 2026, there were doubts about whether the South Africa international would register for the competition. He eventually did, but interestingly, his name was missing from the shortlisted list.
Later, reports claimed that one franchise had requested IPL management to add him to the shortlist. The franchise was then revealed to be Mumbai Indians, who picked him up for his base price of INR 2 crore. However, when the season began, Quinton failed to find a spot in the playing XI, as Ryan Rickelton was picked as the first-choice opener alongside Rohit Sharma.
Meanwhile, in the game against Punjab Kings, when Rohit was ruled out with a hamstring injury, Quinton stepped up and completely changed the complexion of the game. He smacked a 53-ball century to keep the hosts in the hunt, especially after Mumbai lost two key wickets of Rickelton and Suryakumar Yadav in the third over of the match.ย
Mumbai post 195 runs on board
Mumbai have posted 195 runs on the board in the first innings. Quinton remained unbeaten for 112 runs off 60 balls and had he enjoyed better support from the middle order batters, the hosts could have posted over 210 runs. During the innings, head coach Mahela Jayawardene noted that the team would be happy with 170-180 in the middle but after the game, the management could be disappointed for not getting a few extra runs, especially against a quality side such as Punjab.ย
Meanwhile, alongside Quinton, Naman Dhir played an important knock, scoring a half-century. He stitched a 122-run partnership with Quinton, which was one of the biggest highlights of the first innings. The second biggest was Shreyas Iyerโs phenomenal catch along with Xavier Bartlett to send Hardik Pandya packing.ย
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