The Mumbai Indians (MI) have suffered a severe blow ahead of the IPL 2024 opener on Friday, March 22, as their dashing batter Suryakumar Yadav is expected to miss his team’s opening game. The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has not given the Mumbai batsman permission to play in the forthcoming T20 league. It should be mentioned that Surya had a fitness evaluation on Tuesday, March 19, at the NCA in Bengaluru.
The swasbuckling batter could not have been associated with the MI franchise, nevertheless, as it is believed that the NCA management delayed clearance. Towards the end of India’s T20I series against South Africa in late 2023, Surya sustained an ankle injury. He even had surgery on his groin in January, and he hasn’t played competitive cricket since. Since the NCA approval is still pending, Surya will not be playing in MI’s first game. On March 24 in Ahmedabad, the five-time champs will play the Gujarat Titans (GT), Hardik’s former team. Surya has been a formidable force in the IPL after returning to the MI team in 2018. Over the last six seasons, he has scored 2,641 runs (81.28 percent of his total runs in the IPL, which is 3,249).
As a result, the MI management will keep a careful eye on his recuperation and hope that he can soon join the team. The five-time champions With Hardik as captain, Mumbai will start a new chapter in IPL 2024. The all-rounder, who had rejoined the team during the trade window before to the mini-auction the previous year, was named captain in December 2023, taking Rohit Sharma’s place. It will be difficult for him to follow in Rohit’s large footsteps, since MI won all five of their titles (since 2013). The opening match of the IPL 2024 will take place in Chennai on Friday night between the reigning champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). MI squad for IPL 2024: Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, N. Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jason Behrendorff, Romario Shepherd, Hardik Pandya (c), Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma.
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