Shardul Thakur came out to bat for Mumbai Indians during his team's match vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2026 match on Thursday.Interestingly, Shardul Thakur was not part of the Mumbai's starting XI and even not the impact player.

Mumbai had already used opener Danish Malewar as its impact player in place of Allah Ghazanfar.Shardul Thakur came out to bat in the thirteenth over of the second innings, when Noor Ahmad dismissed

Hardik Pandya

and Sherfane Rutherford on consecutive balls.

Why Shardul came to bat?Shardul Thakur came to bat as the concussion substitue for Mitchell Santner, who got injured in the first innings while trying to take a catch.Santner took one wicket and conceded 44 runs in his four overs before getting injured.Mumbai Indians were 95 for 7 at the time of writing the story.Earlier in the match, Sanju Samson scored his fifth IPL century. He reached the milestone on the final ball of the innings with a boundary off Krish Bhagat. It was his second hundred of the season, his second for Chennai Super Kings and fifth overall in the IPL.Samson remained not out on 101 from 54 balls and helped Chennai Super Kings post 207 for 6. He stayed till the end while wickets fell at the other end.He hit 10 fours and six sixes in his innings.For Mumbai Indians, AM Ghazanfar and Ashwani Kumar took two wickets each, while Jasprit Bumrah returned figures of 1 for 31.