IPL 2026 | ‘Rohit Sharma is 100% fit’: Mumbai Indians give big update ahead of Rajasthan Royals clash

Rohit Sharma (Image credit: BCCI/IPL) MUMBAI: Rohit Sharma has been in the news more for his lackluster fitness than his batting in IPL-2026. Hampered by a recurrence of an old hamstring injury, the 39-year-old batsman played eight matches for Mumbai Indians in which he scored 283 runs at an average of 40.42 with a strike rate of 160.70. The injury caused the former Indian captain to miss a few matches and only featured as an ‘Impact Player’ for MI on his return. Amid concerns over his fitness, Rohit was named in India’s ODI squad for the three-match series in Afghanistan in June, but on a “subject to fitness” condition. However, ahead of his team’s final match of IPL-2026 against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene insisted that “Rohit is 100% fit.” “I think even before he got injured, we used him (Rohita) in a few games. We feel that (in) a few games he was impacted (used as an Impact Player) as I explained. It’s purely about the mix of the team and having the people on the field that we want on the field. To be honest, I don’t think about the Indian team or what their requirements are when I build it as an Indian team. Rohit understands that he is team player, he understands what is required of Mumbai Indians, yes, he had a hamstring injury and then he came back (in) the first game, we were careful with his batting as well because he had to slowly come back into it, 0% fielding him because of what we have done in the past as well,” Jayawardene said at the pre-match press conference on Saturday.“It’s just a team combination and nothing to do with that. I hope it doesn’t affect any talks or anything that happens outside that bubble,” added the former Sri Lankan captain.Jayawardene revealed that ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who endured an ordinary IPL-2026 – taking just four wickets @ 102.00, at an economy rate of 8.36 in 13 matches – played “with a bit” in the 2026 T20 World Cup, which meant he had to be allowed both his “progressive pace” to overcome and his “progressive pace” to drop. the first four to five games.” Incredibly, despite the injury, Bumrah finished with 14 wickets in eight matches@12.42 at an economy rate of 6.21 to play a starring role in India’s triumph in the tournament. When asked if fatigue after a grueling T20 World Cup campaign played a role in Bumrah’s decline in performance for MI in the IPL, Jayawardene said: “Yes, I think (Bumrah’s performance in the IPL) is a combination of a few things. I think he also had a bit of a twitch after coming back from the World Cup, which he played the first four matches of the World Cup with, so we gave him the first 5 matches. A gradual build-up to get him over the stupidity that he had, so you could see the pace drop because of that and then, now he’s back to his pace, he was good, but when you go through something like that, you lose a little bit of sharpness and all that because you’re fighting for something else.Jayawardene also pointed out that teams played Bumrah cautiously, meaning MI “were not able to create pressure around him.” However, he exuded that Bumrah will “come back strong” from this low phase. “And I think teams didn’t take too many chances against him in certain situations. They played him because we weren’t able to create pressure around him in the sense that the other pitchers weren’t able to create the kind of pressure that we needed. So tactically, teams played him differently. So, like I said, I can’t say it’s just one thing. There was a combination of a few things. But I don’t think Borrah has a lot of things). He’s in good spirits and he’ll come back strong,” he said. MI head coach.Jayawardene admitted that it has not been an easy season for MI skipper Hardik Pandya, who has missed several matches due to back spasms, been injured and led his team to back-to-back defeats. Hardik’s frustration came to the fore when he broke the stumps in anger after seeing a potential catch spilled in the last over when the ball fell between Deepak Chahar and Robin Minz. “I think it’s obviously frustrating for any pitcher in that situation. I mean, you can’t read too much into it. But yeah, the same frustration that he had on the field. We had that in the dugout because it was a big chance in that situation because I think Rovman (Powell) had about 8 or 10 runs at that time. And that would have put a little more pressure on an at-bat or two. We could have created something, I think it’s difficult not only for Hardik but for all of us to go through a season where we know we have the talent, we have the team but we haven’t been able to do it to the best of our ability and we’ve done well in some parts and not in others, it’s a constant frustration.“So that’s something we have to understand. And like I said, we’ll reset and review and discuss what went wrong and so on. But we have to think about that after the season but not right now,” Jayawardene stated.Asked about his interview in a situation where Bumrah, the niggle-plagued MI leading bowler, is enduring a rare phase of poor form, Jayawardene said: “Yeah, so it was a good interview and Boom is very experienced now. I think he knew that too, so it was also a collective interview with his training staff because how we could prepare him, push him to the nets and how much we could push him to work. So initially we tried to keep him tactically even in situations so that he is not under too much pressure, but as a main pitcher he is under pressure all the time.But we’ve used him in different ways this season, so it gives him a little bit more freedom, but he understands that. He comes back and smiles and says of course it worked. Let’s try something else. So it was a good interview. I think we all learn from these seasons and get through it all. But one thing’s for sure, there’s no doubt that he’s put in the work over those six or eight weeks to get back to where he needs to be. I mean the last couple of games he’s been top notch. He again went back to bowling 140-142 km/hr to beat the Yorkers. He had a few issues with the ramp up, purely because it was a niggle that he had. He has bowled quite a lot of no-balls this season, if you recall. This is related to the build-up. So that’s something he came back and worked on again, like when we had long breaks, he worked on it. So I can’t take anything away from his work and what he puts on the field. It just didn’t happen on the field. But we had good talks and we know what we needed to do,” explained Jayawardene.“We tried, it didn’t work, but we just need to move on,” Mahela concluded.