IPL 2021: Rohit Sharma will be fit to play against KKR – Mahela Jayawardene

Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene has revealed that Rohit Sharma will be fit to play the team’s next match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Rohit didn’t play against Chennai Super Kings at Dubai International Cricket Stadium and MI vice-captain Kieron Pollard led the team in the full-time skipper’s absence.

Rohit was feeling a bit of discomfort in his knee and thus didn’t play against CSK. The right-hander had played a magnificent knock of 127 runs against England in the fourth Test match at Oval and had also not taken the field in England’s second batting innings.

On the other hand, Mumbai Indians all-rounder Hardik Pandya also didn’t play as he suffered a niggle while training. Thus, Mumbai Indians were missing the services of two of their key players and struggled in their run-chase of 157 and fell short by 20 runs in the end.

“Rohit was batting and doing his running, after coming back from the UK, we probably felt he needed extra few days so he should be fine to play the next game. Hardik was training, had a niggle, so precaution and giving him extra days, not nothing serious,” Jayawardene said during a virtual post-match conference.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians failed to get going in their batting innings as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The pitch was on the slow side and Jayawardene admitted that the team suffered some soft dismissals, which put them on the backfoot.

“Well, I think the pitch was not doing much, to be honest, in the second innings, the wicket was pretty good. The odd one sat up a little. I agree we probably gave a couple of soft dismissals, we probably needed someone to take responsibility and bat through the innings which we did not do. That was the difference with CSK with Ruturaj Gaikwad doing that for them,” Jayawardene added.

On the other hand, Ruturaj Gaikwad was able to propel CSK to a fighting score of 156 runs despite the team getting off to a poor start. For Mumbai Indians, no one was able to get going except Saurabh Tiwary, who scored a fifty but could not change gears at the fag end of the innings.

“Even though they lost wickets there was a set batsman who went till the end. We are disappointed with how we handled the situation.

Mumbai will next face KKR in Abu Dhabi on 23rd September.