Why is Suryakumar Yadav not playing today's SRH vs MI IPL 2024 match?
Mumbai Indians (MI) will be without their services of their senior batter Suryakumar Yadav for the second straight game in IPL 2024. He missed MI's tournament opener, as he didn't recover from his ankle injury, which he sustained during the tour of South Africa in December.
The same injury has kept the aggressive right-handed batter out of Mumbai Indians' second IPL 2024 game against SunRisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Suryakumar is yet to get fitness clearance from the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He also underwent a surgery for sports hernia in January.
The Mumbai Indians are hoping that the 360-degree batter would be fit in time either for their third or fourth game of the season. After the game against SunRisers Hyderabad on Wednesday, Mumbai Indians take on Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede in Mumbai on April 1 and Delhi Capitals at the same venue on April 7.
Under new captain Hardik Pandya, MI's IPL 2024 campaign got off to a disappointing start, as they went down to 2022 champions Gujarat Titans by six runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on March 24.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to bowl first. They did a good job, restricting a strong Gujarat Titans batting line-up to 168-6, with Jasprit Bumrah starring with 3-14, while Gerald Coetzee picked up 2-27. In their chase, though, Mumbai were restricted to 162-9 despite Rohit Sharma's 43 off 29 and Dewald Brevis' 46 off 38.
MI seemed to miss someone like Suryakumar, who could have accelerated the innings in the second half. While Tilak Varma scored 25 off 19, Tim David struggled for 10 off 11, while Pandya came in after the game had all but slipped out of Mumbai's grasp.
Suryakumar Yadav's fantastic record for Mumbai Indians
The 33-year-old Suryakumar has an excellent record for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
He's the third-leading run-getter for the franchise, with 2,688 runs in 87 games at an average of 35.36 and a strike rate of 145.92, with one hundred and 20 half-centuries.
Overall, the right-handed batter has featured in 139 games in the IPL and has notched up 3,249 runs at an average of 32.17 and a strike rate of 143.32, with one hundred and 21 fifties.
Suryakumar's last competitive game was during the tour of South Africa when he smacked 100 off 56 in Johannesburg in the third T20I in December.