Mumbai Indians (MI) faced the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match without their captain Rohit Sharma. During the toss, Sharma’s deputy, Suryakumar Yadav, took the lead and revealed that the “Hitman” was unable to play because of a stomach bug.
Yadav, the stand-in MI skipper, said, “Will love to bowl first, the wicket looks dry. The ball comes on to the bat nicely later. Rohit is out, he has a stomach bug. Time to put up a good show.” He also mentioned a change in the lineup, with Duan Jansen coming in.
On the other side, KKR captain Nitish Rana shared that his team would have chosen to bat first if they had won the toss. He expressed confidence in their ability to chase a target of 200-210 runs and added, “One player can’t win you a tournament, it’s a team sport. It’s good for us, that everyone is scoring runs. We’ll target to score around 180 on this wicket, we are playing with the same team.”
In Sharma’s absence, MI gave Arjun Tendulkar, the son of legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, his debut cap. Tendulkar was bought during the IPL 2021 auction and this match marked his first appearance in the popular T20 league.