The Mumbai Indians return to their home ground at the Wankhede and will be up against one of the toughest batting lineups in this edition of the competition. The Mumbai Indians have struggled, especially with their bowlers not hitting the perfect length and their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah‘s scanty tally of wickets.
On the other hand, the Sunrisers Hyderabad have been in some dominating form chasing massive totals with ease. Moving from a lovely batting surface at their home ground to another batting paradise at the Wankhede Stadium. However, it is supposed to be a challenging night for the MI bowlers as they are still in the quest for momentum.
The Hardik Pandya-led side has faced a massive blow, as Rohit Sharma has been missing out on the last few games, while now the tally has lengthened with the likes of new inclusions in Quinton de Kock and Mitchell Santner, the two overseas maestros.
Why is Quinton de Kock not playing the match against SRH?
Quinton de Kock, the left-handed wicket-keeper batter who came into the MI side as a replacement for Rohit Sharma at the top, scored a stunning hundred on return for the Mumbai Indians. He then replaced Ryan Rickelton in the main XI.
However, after two massive failures, Quinton de Kock has now missed the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, Hardik Pandya, the skipper, has confirmed that the miss is completely due to the cricketer’s sudden unfortunate injury to the wrist, and he has missed this game.
“Mitchell (Santner) was unfortunate, and so was Quinny today. He just did something to his wrist. We have a couple of changes for this team. Ryan (Rickelton) comes in place of Quinny,” said Hardik at the toss.
Robin Minz replaces Sherfane Rutherford, while Will Jacks returns to the MI XI
The Mumbai Indians skipper has updated that MI have made many changes to their XI, which include Malewar, the young debutant with very poor starts in the last two games, being benched and replaced by English all-rounder Will Jacks.
Unlike his new role for England, Jacks might once again be seen opening for the Mumbai Indians alongside Ryan Rickelton, whose form happened to dip after a promising start to the season. Hardik Pandya also updated on a daring swap, as Sherfane Rutherford has been dropped.
The West Indian in red-hot form has failed to fire for MI and has been replaced by young wicket-keeper from Jharkhand Robin Minz, who will be up against his state skipper Ishan Kishan‘s Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Hardik Pandya updates on Rohit Sharma’s availability at the toss
As revealed by the MI spokesperson yesterday, the availability of Rohit Sharma would only be updated at the time of the toss, and Hardik has just done that. Alongside Quinton de Kock, the Mumbai Indians would also miss seasoned opener Rohit Sharma for the next few games.
“Rohit’s gonna take a couple of more games. He’s been trying; it’s not up to exactly where he would want, so not available for the team,” said Pandya.
Also, the likes of Trent Boult have returned for the Mumbai Indians after young Krish Bhagat was thrashed by the CSK batters, especially Sanju Samson, at this same venue in the death, and Pandya was criticized for introducing him in the death.
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