Mumbai Indians' key batter Suryakumar Yadav is set to miss at least their first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after National Cricket Academy (NCA) denied him clearance to play in the upcoming edition. The cricketer is away from action since the T20I series against South Africa when he was the captain of the Indian team. But since then, Surya hasn't taken the field and also underwent sports hernia surgery. He was expected to get fit in time for IPL 2024 but that doesn't seem to be happening now.
According to a report in Cricbuzz, Surya wasn't declared fit by the NCA where he is currently recovering and have his next fitness test scheduled on March 21. With Mumbai Indians set to play their first match on March 24 against the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, it is certain that the key MI batter will certainly miss at least that encounter and then with the next match scheduled on March 27, all depends on his fitness scheduled a couple of days later.
Earlier, it was reported that Suryakumar Yadav will be in doubt only for the season opener but now his absence for a few more matches will leave Mumbai Indians worried for sure. Moreover, with the T20 World Cup also coming up, NCA doesn't seem to be taking any chances with the fitness of key players. Interestingly, only a few hours ago, Surya had posted a heartbreak emoji in his Instagram story and since then, there were speculations around his participation in IPL 2024.
As it turns out, for now, he is unlikely to be available only for MI's season opener but things can change if he clears the fitness test on March 21. On Monday, head coach Mark Boucher had also opened up on Surya's availability stating that the cricketer is still under BCCI's medical team and that the franchise is still awaiting an update.
"We are awaiting updates on Suryakumar from the BCCI. We have always been under a cloud of fitness issues but we have a world-class medical team. We may lose one or two in terms of fitness but we have to move on. As the coach of Mumbai Indians, I am going to be a little bit biased and hope to see my best players in all the games. I have a soft spot for my players and I do understand that they might have niggles and that's when I will fall back on my medical team and work with them accordingly," Boucher had said.
More to follow...
