Is Rohit Sharma playing today: Why Hardik Pandya is not playing now vs KKR?

Is Rohit Sharma playing: Mumbai Indians have made a solitary change to their Playing XI for their second match of the UAE leg.

During the 34th match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan has won the toss and chose to field.

Speaking during the toss, England captain Eoin Morgan highlighted his intention of replicating their performance from the last match against Royal Challengers Bangalore without being “complacent”.

“Bowling first worked well in the first game. Want to use the same formula. Wicket looks well put together. I think we can’t get complacent, sport has a funny way of biting you in the backside if you get ahead of yourself. It’s a different challenge here today,” Morgan told Star Sports.

Coming on the back of a winning note, Morgan didn’t feel the need to make any changes to the Playing XI.

Is Rohit Sharma playing today?

The biggest development from the toss has come in the form of defending champions Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma returning for this match.

HITMAN is back 💙

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) September 23, 2021

While Sharma has replaced rookie batsman Anmolpreet Singh in the XI, Indians will continue to take the field without Hardik Pandya. As was the case in the last match, no official update was provided with respect to Pandya at the toss.

No Hardik Pandya? Do we know why? #MUMvsKKR #IPL2021

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) September 23, 2021

“Feeling good. Anmolpreet Singh, who played well first game [vs Chennai Super Kings], misses out. That’s the only change. Missed some basics of cricket in the first game. It was not a big target, certain areas we need to focus on. Hopefully, we can execute today,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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