Why is Rohit Sharma not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs CSK?

Rohit Sharma not playing: The regular captain of defending champions Mumbai Indians will not take the field against Chennai Super Kings.

During the 41st match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in Sharjah, Mumbai Indians captain Kieron Pollard won the toss and chose to field.

“We are gonna bowl first. Don’t expect the wicket to change much and hopefully there’s some dew. We want to qualify to the playoffs first and we still have to come out and play good cricket. We have spoken about areas we need it improve and we want to execute them in the middle tonight,” Pollard told Star Sports during the toss.

Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni revealed that even he wanted to bowl first tonight. “Last game we played here the wicket played slightly better in the second innings, so not much of a problem,” Dhoni told Star Sports during the toss.

Why is Rohit Sharma not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs CSK?

Almost out of IPL 2020 now, CSK have made three changes to their squad. Uncapped Indian batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad and Narayan Jagadeesan and spinner Imran Tahir have been included for this match in the place of batsmen Shane Watson and Kedar Jadhav and spinner Piyush Chawla.

As far as the changes for Indians are concerned, they had to undergo a forced change as regular captain Rohit Sharma will this match. Batsman Saurabh Tiwary, who had earlier played a couple of matches this season, has been included in his place. It will be interesting to see who opens the batting for MI alongside wicket-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock.

“Rohit [Sharma] is struggling with his left hamstring and hopefully he will be fit soon and take the captaincy,” Pollard said about Sharma’s injury. It is worth mentioning that Sharma had missed the second super over due to the same injury against Kings XI Punjab.

“Rohit Sharma has suffered left leg hamstring strain during Mumbai Indians’ last outing. Rohit has made good progress over last four days, while the management is taking one day at a time monitoring the recovery process in consultancy with BCCI,” read a statement issued by Mumbai Indians on their website.