Five-time champions Mumbai Indians are likely to be without Suryakumar Yadav for their IPL 2022 opening game against Delhi Capitals, to be played on March 27 at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
The 31-year-old star India batsman is yet to be released by the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, where he has been rehabilitating for the past month for his thumb injury that he sustained during the T20I series against West Indies; Yadav was Man of the Series then but missed the following Sri Lanka series.
Suryakumar suffered a fractured thumb while fielding in the third T20I against West Indies in Kolkata and has been recovering since. Yadav is all but confirmed to be miss MI’s first game of the season; he could miss more matches as well if he fails to recover soon.
This is a big blow for MI, who failed to reach the playoffs last season and will be eyeing a record sixth IPL title this year. Suryakumar has been one of their key batsmen since joining the franchise in 2018 and was retained for 8 crore ahead of February’s mega-auction.
Yadav has played 61 matches for MI, scoring 1733 runs, at an average of 32 and strike rate of 137; he’s slammed 12 fifties for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. And while MI couldn’t reach the playoffs last season, SKY was their second-leading run-scorer with a tally of 317 at a strike rate of 143.43 and an average of 22.
In Yadav’s absence, Mumbai would be left short of experienced Indian batters, with only skipper Rohit Sharma and wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan the other proven international Indian batters.
Right-handed batsman Anmolpreet Singh, who made his IPL debut last season for MI, opening against CSK, could be a replacement for Suryakumar in the eleven until the latter gets fit. Uncapped Hyderabad batter Tilak Varma, on whom MI spend 1.7 crore, is another likely candidate to play in the middle-order.
Mumbai Indians Full squad for IPL 2022: Rohit Sharma(c), Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Ishan Kishan, Dewald Brevis, Basil Thampi, Murugan Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, N Tilak Varma, Sanjay Yadav, Jofra Archer, Daniel Sams, Tymal Mills, Tim David, Riley Meredith, Arshad Khan, Anmolpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Rahul Buddhi, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Aryan Juyal, Fabian Allen
