Mumbai Indians are set to play their opening game of IPL 2024 against Gujarat Titans on Sunday (March 24) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Hardik Pandya will be leading the team this season but the all-rounder might have to be without a few of his clutch players at the start of the season. Gerald Coetzee and Dilshan Madhushanka are already unlikely at least for the first match. Now Suryakumar Yadav too is yet to join the MI camp with only six days to go for the opening game.
He last played on South Africa tour in the T20I series when he was also the captain of the Indian team. Since then, Surya has been away from the sport due to injury and also underwent surgery for sports hernia in January 2024 in Germany. Expectedly, a question on his availability was also asked at the pre-season conference of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and head coach Mark Boucher.
Responding to the question, the latter confirmed that the team management is awaiting an update from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding Surya's injury. This, for now, puts Suryakumar Yadav in serious doubt at least for the opening game on Sunday. With no cricket behind him for three months now and the fact that he is yet to join the team, it remains to be seen if he will be able to play at the start of the season.
"Surya at the moment is on the guidance of the Indian cricket team as well. Just waiting for updates on that. I don't like to micromanage. We've got a world class medical team that's in control of all of that. Yes, the past, we have had a few fitness issues. We are always going to be in that sort of domain of having fitness issues as other teams are as well.
"Every time I look at my WhatsApp's there's reports of other teams also losing players. We trust our medical team that they're doing the right things. Look, if we lose one or two from fitness perspective, it is what it is. That's important and we just have to keep on the right track and sharp on replacements," Boucher said. Surya was the best player for MI in IPL 2023 amassing 605 runs in 16 innings at an average of 43.21 and a strike-rate of 181.13 with five fifties and a century to his name.
