A NEW ERA begins at the Kia Oval. MI London (formerly Oval Invincibles) face Sunrisers Leeds (formerly Northern Superchargers) in the tournament opener on Tuesday, July 21, at 6:30 PM local (11:00 PM IST).
just two days after England’s ODI against India at the same ground. MI London chase a fourth straight men’s title after their 2023-2025 hat-trick, but this is a completely rebuilt line-up.
The competition has gone IPL-style this year, with fresh franchise identities, a maiden player auction, and a bigger overseas quota. Nicholas Pooran, who once tormented this very opponent with an unbeaten 65 for his old side, now walks out for MI London instead. Both camps are hunting their first points of a brand-new season.
Match Details
| Details | Information |
|---|---|
| Match | MI London vs Sunrisers Leeds, 1st Match |
| Series | The Hundred Men’s Competition 2026. Tournament OPENER. First season under new franchise identities (MI London, Sunrisers Leeds, Manchester Super Giants) after external investment from IPL-linked groups. First-ever men’s player auction held March 2026. |
| Date | Tuesday, 21 July 2026 |
| Time | 6:30 PM BST / 5:30 PM GMT / 11:00 PM IST. Women’s fixture between the same two sides precedes it at 2:45 PM BST as part of the double-header. |
| Venue | The Kia Oval, London. Large square, fast outfield, generally a BATTING-friendly surface once the new ball is seen off. |
| Format | 100-ball innings per side, five sets of 20 balls, no bowler allowed more than two sets. |
| Captains | Sam Curran (MI London), Harry Brook (Sunrisers Leeds) |
| Form | ML: Defending champions under their old Oval Invincibles name, having won the men’s title in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Squad almost entirely reshuffled through the March auction; Nicholas Pooran and James Vince arrive as new overseas/domestic recruits. SEL: Finished 2025 level on points with the eventual champions after a 16-run win at Headingley before falling away late. Now rebranded, with Harry Brook retained as captain and Mitchell Marsh added as a marquee overseas signing. |
| H2H (recent meetings) | The two franchises have gone back and forth in recent seasons. Sunrisers Leeds (as Northern Superchargers) won at this very ground by 19 runs in 2024, powered by a Pooran fifty for the OTHER side. MI London (as Oval Invincibles) won the return fixture by 9 runs. Sunrisers Leeds won the 2025 meeting at Headingley by 16 runs. It is a genuinely even rivalry heading into 2026. |
Dream11 Team For ML vs SEL, 1st Match
Top Picks for ML vs SEL, 1st Match
| Player | Team | Role | Key Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitchell Marsh | SEL | Captain / AR | Captain pick. 627 runs at SR 163.71 in IPL 2026 for LSG. Aussie T20 captain. Batting + medium pace. At 2x. |
| Ryan Rickelton | SEL | VC / WK-Batter | Vice-Captain pick. SA20’s all-time top run-getter (1,349 runs). Opened with Rohit Sharma at MI. Strong 2026 WC returns. At 1.5x. |
| Sam Curran | ML | Captain / AR | MI London captain. Player of the Series in the 2024 Hundred. Left-arm seam plus lower-order hitting gives two ways to score points. |
| Rashid Khan | ML | Bowler | World-class leg-spin. Retained at £175,000 in the auction. Kia Oval offers a turn once the ball gets old. Genuine wicket-taking threat. |
| Nicholas Pooran | ML | WK-Batter | Destructive middle-order hitter facing his OLD franchise. Averaged a match-winning strike rate against this very opponent in 2024. |
Pitch Report
| Details | Information |
|---|---|
| Venue | The Kia Oval, London. Home of Surrey CCC and now home to MI London. First Hundred match was played here in 2021. |
| Pitch Type | PACE early, EASIER for batting as the innings goes on. The new ball offers some seam movement, especially from the Pavilion End. Once it gets older, the surface flattens out and stroke-play becomes easier, so late-innings acceleration is usually the difference-maker. |
| Scoring | The average men’s first-innings score in Hundred matches at the Oval sits at 152, a shade lower than the venue’s reputation in T20 cricket. This is worth double-checking against ESPNcricinfo Statsguru before publishing, since the exact number can vary by source. |
| Pace vs Spin | Pace dominates the Powerplay sets (Boult, Gleeson for ML; Ellis, Carse for SEL). Spin comes into it through the middle once the shine is off (Rashid Khan for ML; Abrar Ahmed for SEL). Both sides have picked their spin options carefully given this trend. |
| Toss Factor | Teams chasing at the Oval win almost exactly half the matches in the men’s Hundred, so the toss edge here is smaller than fans might expect. Captains still tend to lean toward bowling first under lights and chasing a target on a surface that gets easier to bat on. |
Weather Report
| Details | Information |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Around 24°C (75°F), a pleasant London summer evening. |
| Sky | Partly cloudy, with sunny spells through the afternoon session. |
| Rain Chance | Low, roughly 10 percent across the day. A clean, uninterrupted 100-ball contest looks likely on both counts. |
| Humidity | Moderate, which could help the new ball swing a touch under the Tuesday-evening floodlights. |
| Overall | Good batting and bowling conditions in equal measure. No weather delays expected for the opening night of the 2026 season. |
ML vs SEL Toss Prediction
Neither side has a settled toss trend to lean on yet, since both squads were rebuilt from scratch in March’s auction. Given how close to even the chasing numbers are at this ground, expect the toss winner to size up conditions on the day rather than follow a fixed script.
**If Sam Curran (MI London) wins, **He is likely to bowl first and chase, using Trent Boult and Rashid Khan to control the middle sets before backing Pooran, Vince and Jacks to finish the job under lights. This MI London top order has genuine depth, and a chase suits the returning Pooran, who has previous history of finishing games against this exact opponent.
**If Harry Brook (Sunrisers Leeds) wins, **expect Sunrisers Leeds to bat first and use the extra pace of Marsh and Ellis with the new ball. Brook’s own middle-order hitting, along with Rickelton at the top.
Injury and Team News
MI London:
MI London go into 2026 as the defending three-time champions, but this is close to a brand-new squad.
Sam Curran was retained as captain along with Will Jacks and Rashid Khan, while Nicholas Pooran and James Vince arrive as fresh recruits, Pooran switching from Sunrisers Leeds and Vince moving across from Southern Brave, where he was the tournament’s leading run-scorer in 2024 with 424 runs.
Jason Roy joins at the base auction price of £31,000, a notable bargain given his England pedigree.
There is no fresh injury concern reported for the squad heading into the opener, though Sam Curran did carry a groin issue earlier in 2026 that ruled him out of IPL duty for Rajasthan Royals; it is worth a quick fitness check before this article goes live, since he has since been confirmed as captain for the auction and the season launch.
Sunrisers Leeds:
Sunrisers Leeds carry over their Northern Superchargers core after finishing 2025 level on points with the eventual champions before missing out late.
Harry Brook was retained as captain for a reported £465,000-£470,000, the most expensive retention of the men’s auction window, and he is joined by Mitchell Marsh as the marquee overseas all-rounder alongside Ryan Rickelton behind the stumps.
Pakistan leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed was one of the auction’s bigger overseas grabs, giving this attack a genuine wicket-taking spin option to go with Nathan Ellis and Brydon Carse’s pace. No injury concerns have been reported for the squad ahead of the opener.
