Mumbai Indians were forced to leave out skipper Hardik Pandya against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in an important battle of the bottom-placed teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The five-time champions, dotted with starts for the Indian national team, are going through a poor phase in this year’s IPL, winning just two matches so far.
While everyone expected Pandya to go in the toss, India’s T20 World Cup captain Suryakumar Yadav surprised everyone by walking in the middle alongside LSG’s Rishabh Pant in the middle.
“He (Hardik) is not well tonight, so I’m going in my shoes. But yeah, the rest is fine,” informed Suryakumar at the coin toss. An official update from the Mumbai Indians media team clarified that Pandya suffered a back spasm. “Hardik Pandya is unwell with back spasms, hence Suryakumar Yadav is the captain for today’s match,” Mumbai Indians said in a statement.
Apart from Pandya, Mumbai Indians also drafted in Corbin Bosch to replace Trent Boult. Mumbai Indians opted to bowl first. However, the biggest cheer was reserved for Rohit Sharma. As soon as Suryakumar informed about Rohit’s availability, the entire stadium erupted in the background. “Our very own Rohit Sharma is back,” said Suryakumar.
The five-time IPL-winning captain suffered a hamstring injury on April 12 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and had to retire at just 19. Since then, Rohit has missed five matches for Mumbai Indians. Out of these five, Mumbai Indians lost in four of them. But Rohit will play only as an impact substitute.
The 37-year-old was not included in the playing eleven after Suryakumar won the toss and opted to bat first. He will come out to open the Mumbai Indians innings with Ryan Rickelton in company. On the other hand, LSG also made three changes from the last match. LSG handed a debut to Australian Josh Inglis, who replaced George Linde. Mukul Choudhary had to sit out debutant Akshat Raghuwanshi.
MI vs LSG playing XI
Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav.
Mumbai Indians: Ryan Rickelton (w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma.
List of MI vs LSG impact subs
Lucknow Super Giants: Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mayank Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abdul Samad
Bombay IndiansCast: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur, Trent Boult
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