MI vs SRH: Hardik Pandya provides disheartening update on Rohit Sharma's injury: 'Not up to the mark'

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has given an honest and somewhat worrying update on Rohit Sharma’s fitness ahead of their IPL 2026 clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad, saying the veteran opener still needs more time to recover and is not there yet in terms of being fully fit.

MI won the toss and opted to bat first against SRH, with Hardik explaining that the team was looking to keep things simple and back their plans in what he felt was a good surface. He also confirmed a couple of changes in the playing XI, bringing in Ryan Rickelton and Robin Minz, while also revealing that Quinton de Kock has injured himself and will miss out.

"It was important for us to reset and not get too complicated, we had a couple of good boys' evenings and a couple of net sessions. Now ready for the game. Mitchell was unfortunate, as was Quinny today, he had a wrist injury. There are a couple of changes: Rickelton comes in, Minz is in. Rohit will need a couple more games, he's trying, but it's not up to the mark. I want to play the best cricket I know as well," he said.

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Rohit picked up the injury on April 12 during MI’s match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru while batting. Since then, he has missed Mumbai Indians' last three games against Punjab Kings, Gujarat Titans, and Chennai Super Kings, and is now also ruled out of the clash against SRH.

MI vs SRH: Playing XIs Impact Subs

Mumbai Indians batting-first XI: Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Robin Minz, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar

MI bench: Mayank Rawat, Raghu Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Krish Bhagat, Raj Bawa

Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling-first XI: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Henrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Pat Cummins (c), Harsh Dubey, Eshan Malinga, Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain

SRH bench: R Smaran, Aniket Verma, Liam Livingstone, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel