Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma is not playing the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 Phase 2 opening match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Rohit suffered a knee injury while batting during the recently concluded fourth Test against England where he also scored a brilliant match-winning hundred. In his absence, Kieron Pollard is captaining the Mumbai Indians in this IPL Phase opener in Dubai.
“Rohit is okay, he’ll be fine sooner rather than later, I’m just the captain for today,” Pollard said at the toss. MI are also missing their all-rounder Hardik Pandya but the reason for the same was not mentioned at the toss.
“It comes down to how you play on that day in the shortest form. We’ll try to do the basics right and focus on the process. Sam is not available. Faf, Moeen, Bravo and Josh are playing this game,” Dhoni said.
The fitness of Rohit Sharma has been a matter of big debate in cricketing circles after he was not included in any of the three squads that were selected on Tuesday (October 27) to tour Australia for a full-fledged series.
The matter was complicated when Mumbai Indians tweeted pictures and a video of Rohit training at nets shortly after the India squad announcement. It created an impression that Rohit’s injury was not series in nature and rumour mills were also began to spin stories about his possible rift with India captain Virat Kohli.
