LNS vs MIL Dream11 Prediction, The Hundred 2026 Match 23 Best Team, Captain and Vice-Captain Picks

The Hundred's Match 23 sits at the exact midpoint of the men's competition, and the table splits it cleanly: MI London third, three wins from five, with a net run rate that has ticked north after a 5/17 from Rashid Khan at MSG; London Spirit seventh, a single win, a recent 37-run loss and an attack that still looks short on confidence. Recent form mirrors that split — Spirit L,L,W,L,L; MI London W,L,W,L,W — and across the last ten meetings between these two sides MI London lead 8-2, the most lopsided head-to-head in this Hundred window. For the Dream11 manager that asymmetry is the single biggest frame around this match: the captain slot has to read the form line, not the franchise shirt.

Lord's adds its own frame. The Hundred average first-innings score at this ground sits at 136 and the second-innings score at 130, with the matchup win split 55-45 in favour of the side batting first. Pace bowlers take 61 per cent of the wickets on this surface, and the average first-innings total is short enough that wickets in hand at the halfway point matter more than swing for the fences. Translating that into Dream11 picks means captaincy comes from the all-rounder slot — the player who earns his keep with both bat and ball on a deck that rewards wicket-taking over boundary-hitting. Lock your lineup only after the toss and the impact-player announcement; until then the picks below are the working baseline.

What Lord's is telling us

The Lord's surface for this Hundred window has settled into a familiar pattern: enough lateral movement early to keep the new-ball bowlers interested, enough pace and bounce on the square boundaries to keep batters honest, and a second-innings surface that grips slightly more than it did under lights. The 55-45 win split for the side batting first is the headline number; the sub-text is the 1.5-run gap between first- and second-innings averages (136 against 130), small enough to ignore in isolation but large enough to push captains towards batting first when the toss lands their way. Dew is a smaller factor at Lord's than at the Southampton and Manchester venues the tournament has already passed through, so chasing under lights is a tougher ask than the recent Hundred form book might suggest.

The 61 per cent wicket share for pacers is the harder number to ignore. Three of the four bowler slots in any Dream11 combination should come from the seam attack, with the fourth reserved for the spinning all-rounder who can break a partnership in the middle overs. Spin takes 39 per cent of the wickets but comes in clustered spells — usually one over from each of the two spinners in the middle phase, then a holding role at the death — which means bowling points from a frontline spinner are concentrated into a single 12-ball window. Pace picks up points across two spells and the death. That split favours three seamers and one spinner in your combination.

Captain and vice-captain picks

The captaincy slate splits cleanly between two seam-bowling all-rounders and one top-order batter. David Willey, leading the Spirit seam attack with the new ball, brings both 95 runs and 5 wickets in this Hundred window and owns the early-powerplay overs that produce the most fantasy points per over bowled. Liam Livingstone, Spirit captain, owns the middle-overs spin and the finisher's slot with the bat — 157 runs and 2 wickets to date make him the highest combined-returns name in the Spirit XI. Will Jacks, opening for MI London, has scored 195 runs at the top of the order with a 0/9 bowling return that signals the selectors are using him purely as a batter; in GL formats that ownership profile makes him a sharp differential captain pick, but in SL formats he is the safer vice-captain than a seam-bowling all-rounder because his floor is high.

The Dream11 combinations Cricket Winner flags in their Match 23 piece point to two clear builds. The GL build uses David Willey as captain and Liam Livingstone as vice-captain — a seam-and-spin multiplier pair that catches both bowling-points windows on this surface. The SL build inverts that priority with Liam Livingstone as captain and Will Jacks as vice-captain — a batter-led combo that wins on ownership and floor rather than ceiling. Sam Curran, MI London captain and 113 runs/4 wickets in this window, is the punt pick in grand leagues where selection rate is low and a three-wicket spell at the death has the kind of ceiling that breaks a contest open.

Why David Willey owns the GL captain slot

Willey takes the new ball at Lord's, which means he bowls four overs across two spells with the field up and a third over at the death with the batters looking to clear the ropes. Across the Hundred window he has delivered 95 runs at a strong strike rate from the top of the Spirit order and 5 wickets from 20 overs — a combined points return that puts him top of the Spirit points table. On a Lord's surface where 61 per cent of the wickets go to pacers, his role is structurally set for a captain multiplier. The risk is his ownership: at 15-20 per cent across small and large formats he carries lower multiplier value than Livingstone, but the ceiling is the higher of the two for any given match.

Why Livingstone holds the SL captain slot

Livingstone is the higher-ownership captain pick in SL contests because he combines a finisher's role with the bat (157 runs in the window at a strike rate north of 140) with a middle-overs spin option that takes wickets in clusters. As Spirit captain he is also the centre of the side's decision-making at the toss — batting order, bowling rotation, declaration windows — which means fantasy managers gain the same information flow through his name that Dhull provided in earlier Match 1 editions of this preview format. On a Lord's pitch where spin comes into play in the second half of the innings, his bowling role is structured for points rather than dependent on conditions.

Two Dream11 combinations for Match 23

Both combinations below work for the standard SL/GL contest split. Lock Team 1 as-is in small contests where ownership matters more than ceiling; in grand leagues, swap one of the MI London seamers (Richard Gleeson sits lower in the wicket order) for an extra Spirit batting option, push Livingstone down to the vice-captain slot if you want to chase a different multiplier, and use the freed credit to upgrade Overton into the captain conversation. The combination split is 1-2-5-3 in the GL build and 1-3-4-3 in the SL build — both legal under the standard 100-credit cap on My11Circle.

Note: in the SL safe build, move Liam Livingstone up to captain and Will Jacks to vice-captain. The Cricket Winner Match 23 piece flags David Willey as the GL captain and Liam Livingstone as the SL captain, with Will Jacks and Sam Curran the suggested vice-captain and punt picks. If your contest restricts overseas spots or caps all-rounders differently, drop Jamie Overton from Team 1 and use the freed credit to upgrade Rashid Khan to a higher-tier spinner in MIL's XI. On My11Circle, check the contest rules card before locking — different contests cap keepers, overseas players and all-rounders differently, and the last five overs of credit rebalancing are worth 30-40 rank positions in tight contests.

Players to watch

Four names from the broader squad sheets deserve a longer look at Lord's. Lhuan-dre Pretorius, the Spirit opener, has been the most consistent top-order point earner for LNS in this window — pick him in formats where the top-order points pool matters more than the strike-rate, and let him bat through the powerplay. Dewald Brevis slots into the Spirit middle order and brings a spin-bowling option that has taken wickets on surfaces where batting has been tough — he has 137 runs and 0 wickets to date, but on a Lord's surface where the slower bowlers grip in the second half of the innings, the bowling points pool is ready to tick up. On the MI London side, Sherfane Rutherford in the middle order is the highest-ceiling batting pick outside the captain slot — power-hitting on a deck with short square boundaries, and a finisher's role that earns points even on quiet nights. For bowling points outside the obvious names, Tom Curran at the death for MIL has the slower-ball variation that has worked at this ground across formats.

Budget picks that earn their slot

Two lower-credit names deserve attention at this venue. Adam Zampa, the Spirit leg-spinner, brings both middle-overs wickets and a credit-light slot that releases budget for the seam-bowling all-rounders in the captain conversation. On a Lord's surface where spin grips in the second half of the innings, his role is structural rather than conditional — pick him in any format where middle-overs spin points matter. For MI London, Nathan Sowter is the off-spinner who has held a middle-overs role across the window; at lower credit than Rashid Khan he earns the slot in formats where the budget cap is tight and the captain pick is high-cost. In contests with a 100-credit cap, the Zampa-Sowter pair releases about 4-5 credits relative to the next tier up, which can be redirected into a fourth seam-bowling option if your contest rewards wicket points.

Head-to-head and venue record

The two franchises have met ten times since The Hundred started in 2021, and the ledger is the most lopsided matchup in the men's competition: MI London 8 wins, London Spirit 2, no no-results across the ten fixtures. That split is wider than the form line alone would suggest and reflects how well the MI London squad structure has held up against Spirit's middle-order churn through the early windows of this tournament. The eight-five MI London lead, layered over Spirit's recent L,L,W,L,L run and MI London's W,L,W,L,W run, points to a match that sits closer to a 65-35 favourite on form than the head-to-head alone might suggest. For fantasy managers that asymmetry flows into the captain slot more than it does into the team-build slots.

Lord's as a Hundred venue leans towards the side batting first and the side with the seam-bowling all-rounder. Across the men's Hundred matches played at this ground since 2021, the side that has won the toss and batted first has gone on to win 55 per cent of the time. The 1.5-run gap between first-innings (136) and second-innings (130) averages is small enough to be tilted by a strong bowling spell in the powerplay, but the cumulative effect across the tournament's ten-match sample has been enough for captains to keep choosing to bat first. For tonight's fixture that read pushes the captaincy conversation towards the side that wins the toss and the seam bowlers who bowl in the powerplay.

Predicted playing XIs

The probable XIs below are based on squad announcements published on 6 August 2026 ahead of the toss. Spirit are expected to retain the same starting XI that lost to Manchester Super Giants by 37 runs, with Lhuan-dre Pretorius opening alongside Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone slotting in at four with the captaincy armband. MI London are expected to swap Rashid Khan for Sikandar Raza after the leg-spinner returned from his Player-of-the-Match workload at MSG; that change locks the spinner slot for Raza and shifts Tom Curran up the bowling order. Lock your lineup only after the toss — a last-minute change at this venue costs you zero credits and a lot of points. For a wider read on how this captain picks frame stacks against other Hundred matches, the broader Fantasy Cricket Tips guide tracks similar venue-led logic across recent tournament windows.

Expert advice for My11Circle managers

Three small decisions shape whether this lineup lands in the top 10 per cent or the top 50 per cent of any given contest. First, the captaincy call. Willey for GL, Livingstone for SL, Sam Curran as the punt pick. Mixing captain picks across formats is cleaner than splitting them within the same lineup. Second, the overseas slot. Both sides have four overseas options in their probable XI — for My11Circle contests that cap overseas players at four, the cleanest read is to back the captain pick's overseas slot and save the credit elsewhere. Dewald Brevis and Sherfane Rutherford are the two overseas points picks outside the captain conversation; pick at least one of them in any combination that crosses the four-overseas threshold. Third, the third seamer. Jamie Overton is the higher-ceiling seam-bowling pick outside the captain slot; Andrew Tye is the safer anchor. If your contest is GL-heavy, take Overton's ceiling. If it is SL-heavy, take Tye's floor.

Match winner call

On form, on head-to-head, and on the venue read, MI London are the side to back. Their batting goes deeper, their captain has both runs and a slower-ball variation at the death, and the Lord's surface means the seam-bowling all-rounders on their side have the structural role that wins matches at this ground. The match-winner verdict matches the broader Hundred fantasy logic: an MI London win favours the seam-bowling all-rounder captain pick on combined bat-and-ball points, and a Spirit upset — if it comes — means Livingstone earns the multiplier and the rest of the LNS XI pulls rank regardless.

What to watch once the toss lands

Two markers matter for last-minute edits. First, the toss itself. If LNS win and bat first, lock the Livingstone captain pick without changes — the surface and the depth chart both reward the side batting first, and a 150-plus first-innings score gives the seam-bowling all-rounders something to defend. If MIL win and bat first, shift to Will Jacks as the SL captain and Sam Curran as the GL captain, and consider Sherfane Rutherford as a higher-up multiplier pick on a chase where the Spirit top order has to take risks against Boult and the new ball. Second, the impact-player announcement. Both sides will name a substitute who can come in at any point regardless of the count of batters and bowlers used — that substitute is usually a bowler, which means the bowling points pool shifts late. Wait for the announcement, then edit.

The clearer the captaincy call, the smaller the last-minute change. The lineup above gives you a 1-2-5-3 GL split or a 1-3-4-3 SL split, a strong top order, a middle-order all-rounder finish, and a seam-and-spin bowling unit weighted towards the powerplay. On a Lord's pitch that historically rewards the seam-bowling all-rounders, the side that wins the powerplay and takes wickets in clusters through the middle phase is the side the fantasy points follow — and that is where the captain pick earns his multiplier on 6 August.

Underlying source: Cricket Winner, "LNS vs MIL Dream11 Prediction, The Hundred 2026 Match 23 Best Team, Captain and Vice-Captain Picks," published 6 August 2026 at 3:16 PM IST. Verified facts: Match 23 of The Hundred Men's 2026 between London Spirit (LNS) and MI London (MIL) at Lord's on 6 August 2026, 11:00 PM IST; LNS seventh on the table with one win, MIL third with three wins from five including a 45-run win at MSG where Rashid Khan took 5/17; Lord's pitch behaviour 55 per cent win batting first, 45 per cent bowling first, 61 per cent of wickets to pace, average first-innings score 136 and average second-innings score 130; London weather 14-15°C, 2 per cent rain chance, 74 per cent humidity; head-to-head across ten meetings LNS 2, MIL 8, no no-results; recent form LNS L,L,W,L,L and MIL W,L,W,L,W; predicted LNS XI Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Jonny Bairstow (WK), James Rew, Liam Livingstone (C), Dewald Brevis, James Coles, Jamie Overton, David Willey, Andrew Tye, Adam Milne, Adam Zampa; predicted MIL XI Will Jacks, James Vince, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Sam Curran (C), Sherfane Rutherford, Ollie Pope, Tom Curran, Rashid Khan/Sikandar Raza, Trent Boult, Nathan Sowter, Richard Gleeson; key Dream11 stats cited LNS — David Willey 95/5, Liam Livingstone 157/2, Dewald Brevis 137/0, Jamie Overton 47/4; MIL — Will Jacks 195/0, Sam Curran 113/4, Nicholas Pooran 132/0; suggested GL captain David Willey with Liam Livingstone as vice-captain, SL captain Liam Livingstone with Will Jacks as vice-captain, Sam Curran the punt pick and GL combination 1-2-5-3; match verdict MI London to win with Sikandar Raza expected to replace the unavailable Rashid Khan; live streaming JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.