Mumbai Indians are set to face Sunrisers Hyderabad today in the 8th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The five-time champions lost the previous game against Gujarat Titans by six runs as they couldn't chase down 169 runs. MI missed their key player Suryakumar Yadav in their season opener as he bats at number three and more often, bails the team out of trouble.
After missing the last game, he was expected to join MI camp ahead of the SRH clash but he continues to be unavailable. He continues to recover from ankle injury and is at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Moreover, according to Cricinfo, Surya is unlikely to be fit for MI's first home game on April 1 against Rajasthan Royals as well. Clearly, this is a big blow for the Hardik Pandya-led side as the team aims to register their first win of the season.
As for Surya, he has been on the sidelines for more than three months now having last played the T20I series against South Africa. Since then, he hasn't played any domestic cricket due to not being fit and was also unavailable for the home T20I seriesd against Afghanistan in January. He was expected to regain full fitness for IPL but things haven't gone to plan it seems as NCA is yet to give him clearance.
For the unversed, Surya had also posted a story on Instagram with a heartbreak emoji a couple of days before the start of the IPL 2024 last week and soon the development was confirmed related to his fitness. With the T20 World Cup coming up soon after IPL, NCA isn't taking any risks when it comes to Surya's fitness as he is also a key player for India in the shortest format of the game. For now though MI might stick to Naman Dhir who smashed 20 runs off just 10 deliveries with three fours and a six to his name.
