Rohit Sharma has been rested for the UAE-leg opener of the 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) where defending champions Mumbai Indians will take on Chennai Super Kings at the Dubai International Stadium. Kieron Pollard replaced him as the captain of Mumbai Indians.
"Rohit is okay, he'll be fine sooner rather than later, I'm just the captain for today," Pollard said after the toss.
Hardik Pandya missed out as well as Mumbai Indians named debutant Anmolpreet Singh as his replacement.
"We started a couple of months back, and we were just starting to build the momentum with a couple of wins," Pollard added.
Mumbai presently stand fourth in the points table with four wins in seven matches, one of which came against Chennai, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in May. Pollard's breathtaking 34-ball 87* had guided the five-time champions to a four-wicket win.
Chennai's captain MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat against Mumbai in Dubai.
"Looks like a good surface. Better to put runs on the board. Once tournament starts, you get into some sort of rhythm but this season its new, and maybe us cricketers will start loving it: seven games, a break, and then seven more. It comes down to how you play on that day in the shortest form, so we'll try to keep the basics right," said Dhoni.
Playing XIs:
Chennai Super Kings: Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood
Mumbai Indians: Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
