SOB vs MIL Dream11 Prediction, Match 9, Fantasy Cricket Tips, Playing XI, Injury Updates, Pitch Report for The Hundred 2026

Match 9 of The Hundred Men's 2026 lands at the Rose Bowl on Monday night, with Southern Brave still searching for their first win of the campaign and MI London sitting third on four points after a win–loss opening pair. The Brave have lost both of their fixtures so far — a narrow five-run defeat at Headingley against Sunrisers Leeds in which Tristan Stubbs briefly threatened a one-man comeback, followed by a loss to Welsh Fire — leaving them alongside London Spirit as one of the two winless sides in the men's table. MI London, captained by Sam Curran, opened the tournament with a win over Sunrisers Leeds and dropped their second match to Welsh Fire, which is why they sit third on net run rate rather than second.

First ball is scheduled for 11:00 PM IST, with the broadcast running on the JioStar Network and the live stream on JioHotstar in India. The CricTracker Dream11 note — last updated 27 July 2026 at 12:37 PM — flags both probable XIs as "will be updated after toss", so any fantasy team built off the published line-ups carries the standard pre-toss caveat. Predicted XIs and selection reasoning below are pre-toss; treat them as a starting point rather than a final answer.

Underlying source: CricTracker Dream11 prediction article, "SOB vs MIL Dream11 Prediction, Match 9, Fantasy Cricket Tips, Playing XI, Injury Updates, Pitch Report for The Hundred 2026," published 27 July 2026. The article confirms the venue (Rose Bowl), the 11:00 PM IST start, both probable XIs, the captain and vice-captain picks, the pitch split (70:30 pace:spin), the average score of 160, and the Southampton forecast (cloudy, 18.3°C, 74% humidity) at the start time. Probable XIs are pre-toss and remain subject to the captains' final team sheets.

Match snapshot

Rose Bowl pitch report and conditions

The Rose Bowl has long been known as a balanced surface with a slight bias towards batting, and the conditions for Monday night are expected to follow that pattern. CricTracker's pitch note credits the venue with consistent bounce and carry, lateral movement possible with the new ball, a 70:30 pace-to-spin split, a par score around 160, and a 70% batting-friendly verdict. None of those numbers are extreme in either direction, which is why the venue is widely treated as a "true" Hundred pitch — the kind that rewards shot selection rather than a one-dimensional skill set.

The forecast for Southampton at the start time reads cloudy, 18.3°C and 74% humidity. Cloud cover helps the seamers who can move the ball off the surface in the first six balls of an innings, and the humidity reading is high enough that grip might be a talking point in the second innings if the surface dries. Dew in Southampton in late July is rarely as decisive as it is on the subcontinent, but captains who win the toss and bowl first on a humid night often back their attack to use the early movement and then chase under lights. The Brave, under Chris Jordan, have often preferred to bowl first at the Rose Bowl, although the squad's two losses this season have come regardless of the toss.

For fantasy managers, the practical read of the pitch is that all-rounder and top-order batting picks should rate slightly higher than specialist spin picks, while genuine wicket-taking seamers retain their full value because of the new-ball movement window. The 160 average is also a useful number for setting captain and vice-captain thresholds: the player who most plausibly drives a 160-plus score, or restricts the opposition below it, is the player to back with the multiplier.

Probable Southern Brave XI

The Brave have a familiar Hundred spine: James Smith behind the stumps, the McKinney–Stoinis–Miller middle order, Tristan Stubbs as the late-innings accelerator, Chris Jordan as captain and death-overs enforcer, and a bowling unit led by Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood and Daniel Worrall. The selection logic is clear — they need bounce-back form from their overseas stars after two losses, and the bench reflects a settled view of who delivers against English conditions in mid-summer. Stoinis at three and Miller at four give the Brave a left-right middle-order pivot, and Rashid is the spin match-up against MI London's right-hand-heavy top seven.

The injury situation around the Brave is mostly about workload rather than availability. Archer and Wood are both expected to take the new ball, with Worrall slotting in as the third seamer; Rashid's role is the middle-overs choke. The bench is a depth chart rather than a casualty list, with Michael-Kyle Pepper, Tom Rew, Callum Falconer, Tom Abell, Saif Zaib and Matt Lumsden as the rotation options. For fantasy purposes, the Brave XI is a high-floor, low-ceiling batting unit that depends on Stoinis, Miller and Stubbs to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Probable MI London XI

MI London have the more aggressive batting card on paper, and the predicted XI keeps the Jacks–Vince–Roy top three that has been their attacking platform through the first two matches. Sam Curran at four gives the side a left-handed captaincy anchor with both bat and ball, while Nicholas Pooran at five provides the late-innings power that turns competitive totals into match-winning ones. Sherfane Rutherford's role at six is the finisher slot — he has the raw hitting to clear the leg side at the Rose Bowl, where the short straight boundary comes into play in the death overs.

The bowling unit is built around Trent Boult with the new ball, Rashid Khan in the middle overs, Tom Curran as the seam-bowling all-rounder, Richard Gleeson as the third seamer and Nathan Sowter as the second spin option. Boult's left-arm angle is a useful match-up against the Brave's right-hand heavy top order (Smith, McKinney, Stoinis, Miller), and Rashid Khan against any right-hand combination is the kind of match-up My11Circle managers build captaincy plans around. The bench — Ollie Pope, Oliver Sykes, Callum Parkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Philippe, Eddie Jack and Steven Morgan — is unusually long, which reflects the franchise's willingness to rotate based on conditions.

Dream11 captain and vice-captain picks

The CricTracker captaincy recommendation is straightforward: Sam Curran (MI London, ALL) at 8.5 credits as captain, with Adil Rashid (SOB, BOWL) at 7.5 credits as vice-captain. The reasoning lines up with both the venue and the team balance. Curran offers captaincy upside through three Dream11 scoring avenues — runs at four, wickets with the new ball or at the death, and fielding points from catches in the inner ring — which is exactly the multi-channel profile that tends to win fantasy leagues on nights when the total stays around 160. Adil Rashid brings leg-spin wicket-taking potential on a surface that the pitch note credits with carry, and the Brave need him to deliver a tight middle-overs spell if they are to keep MI London under par.

The differential angle for fantasy managers who want to separate from the field is Jofra Archer (SOB, BOWL) at 9.0 credits. Archer's ownership percentage in large contests will be high because of his wicket-taking pedigree, but the captaincy multiplier is what flips the math — backing him as C rather than VC, on a night when the Brave's bowlers need to fire, turns a strong pick into a league-winning pick. The same logic applies in reverse for Trent Boult, who is the highest-ceiling new-ball option on the MI London side and benefits from the left-arm angle against the Brave's right-hand top four.

For managers who prefer to play it safer, the anchor pairing of David Miller (SOB, BAT) and Nicholas Pooran (MI London, WK) at the top of the order in fantasy terms is the consistent-points route. Miller's left-handed middle-order game is well-suited to the Rose Bowl's short straight boundaries, and Pooran's range-hitting in the death overs gives him a points ceiling that few other batters in the match can match. The trade-off is that both will be heavily owned, so the captaincy multiplier does most of the work in separating your team from the field.

Avoid list for fantasy managers

The CricTracker avoid list flags two players: Michael-Kyle Pepper (SOB, WK) and Ollie Pope (MI London, BAT). Both are quality players, but the logic in a fantasy context is straightforward. Pepper is on the Southern Brave bench rather than the probable XI, which means any selection carries the risk of the player not taking the field at all. Pope, similarly, is on the MI London bench and is not in the predicted starting eleven; even if he replaces someone late, his fantasy role is reduced compared with Vince, Roy or Pooran. The wider lesson is that predicted XIs are not final XIs, and the players who are on the bubble are the ones most likely to leave your fantasy team with an empty slot.

A secondary avoid call is worth flagging: specialist spinners on both sides should be approached with caution unless they bowl the middle-overs overs that the captain is going to give them. Rashid and Rashid Khan (the two Adils/Rashids in the match — Adil Rashid for SOB and Rashid Khan for MIL) are the exceptions, because they are locked into a defined middle-overs role and will get their full quota. Players further down the bowling order are more likely to be held back in a tight chase, which suppresses their wicket-taking upside.

Fantasy impact for My11Circle managers

Three angles deserve attention for My11Circle managers. First, the captaincy decision is the single most important call of the night. The CricTracker recommendation of Sam Curran as C and Adil Rashid as VC is the conservative route, and it will leave you with a competitive but rarely unique team. The aggressive route is to push one of Archer or Boult up to C and use Curran as a strong VC, which preserves the multi-channel scoring while giving your team a differentiator. Both routes are defensible; the aggressive route is the one that wins large contests when the popular captain underperforms.

Second, the role allocation matters as much as the player picks. The Hundred scoring rewards wicketkeepers more heavily than standard T20 formats because of the dismissal points, which is why Nicholas Pooran (MI London, WK) at 9.0 credits remains the best value pick in the match. JL Smith (SOB, WK) is the Brave equivalent but plays a more conservative role, which limits his points ceiling. Backing the keeper who bats five or higher is almost always the right call in a Hundred fantasy context.

Third, the credit allocation across the XI is what separates a balanced team from a brittle one. The Curran–Pooran–Boult core at the top end of the XI is straightforward to fit under the credit cap, but the Brave bowlers (Archer, Rashid, Wood, Worrall) cost real money and force a budget cut elsewhere. The cheapest route through that constraint is to back two or three Brave bowlers rather than four, and use the saved credits to upgrade from a Brave batter to an MI London batter. MI London's batting depth (Jacks, Vince, Roy, Pooran, Rutherford) makes it easier to find a high-scoring option in the 7–8 credit band than the equivalent slot in the Brave XI.

The toss, the XIs and what to watch

Three signals will tell the rest of the story once the captains walk out. First, the toss. On a humid, cloudy evening at the Rose Bowl, the captain who wins the toss is likely to bowl first, which means the powerplay overs belong to the bowlers and the chase belongs to the batters. Fantasy teams built around powerplay wickets (Boult, Archer, Wood) gain a small edge if the chasing side bowls, while teams built around death-overs batters (Pooran, Miller, Stubbs) gain the equivalent edge if the side batting second is chasing under lights.

Second, the confirmed playing XIs. The CricTracker probable XIs are pre-toss selections and remain subject to change; the most likely swap on either side is in the lower-order batting, where a bench all-rounder can replace a specialist bowler if the conditions favour batting. The MI London bench is the longer of the two, so the late swap risk is higher on their side. For fantasy managers, the practical rule is: do not lock your team before the toss. The toss and the official XI are the two pieces of information that change the captaincy math.

Third, the in-game adjustments. The Hundred format compresses every game into roughly two and a half hours, which means there is very little time for captains to react to early wickets. The team that handles the first 25 balls better is usually the team that wins, and the player who handles those 25 balls — Boult with the new ball, Archer with the new ball, or one of the in-form top-order batters — is the player who tends to top the fantasy scoreboard by full time.

What this match means for the Hundred table

A win for Southern Brave keeps their tournament alive and pulls them level with the group of teams on four points; a loss leaves them as one of the two winless sides in the men's Hundred, with a difficult run of fixtures ahead. A win for MI London pushes them up to second on six points and gives Sam Curran's side breathing room ahead of the back end of the group stage; a loss drops them to fourth on four points and brings the chasing pack closer.

The wider Hundred context is that the 2026 men's competition has been tighter than 2024 and 2025 through the first eight matches, with three sides already on four points and only Sunrisers Leeds and Trent Rockets clearly above the pack. The Match 9 fixture is the first of three matches in the next four days, and the results over that compressed window will go a long way towards defining the top four. For fantasy managers with multi-match entry strategies, the Brave–MI London fixture is the highest-priority lock of the week, with the Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix matches on Wednesday and Thursday providing the next two highest-priority contests.

What to watch next on My11Circle

For fantasy managers who want to plan further ahead, the wider fantasy cricket schedule on My11Circle has the Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix fixtures locked in for Wednesday and Thursday, both with live Dream11 picks and probable XIs published closer to the toss. The Hundred Women's 2026 runs in parallel, and the women's fixtures carry their own fantasy point economy — captains and vice-captains do not transfer cleanly between the men's and women's competitions.

Monday's toss, the official playing XIs handed in by both captains, and any late fitness updates will be the three signals to watch before locking a fantasy team. The CricTracker Dream11 prediction gives a starting framework; the live broadcast on JioHotstar and the on-ground view from the Rose Bowl will tell the rest of the story.