Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma was the impact player in their chase of 186 against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday. Rohit opened the innings with Ishan Kishan and was dropped by Umesh Yadav on the very first ball as the bowler dropped a simple catch on his own delivery.
Rohit Sharma can come in as an impact player. pic.twitter.com/Xl2o3b0kOm— Ratnish (@LoyalSachinFan) April 16, 2023
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav, who accompanied Nitish Rana for the toss, revealed that Rohit had a stomach bug due to which he was not included in the playing XI. In the last match against Delhi Capitals, Rohit ended his half-century drought in IPL with a match-winning knock of 62 off 53 balls. Earlier, Rohit’s last fifty came against Punjab Kings in Chennai in April 2021. Between the two half-centuries, Rohit played 24 innings without a half-century.
The opening pair of Rohit and Kishan got MI off to a solid start and the Knight Riders’ new bowlers were struggling to contain them. However, it was now the responsibility of the spinners to come in and make a difference in the game as the wicket looked like a belter.
Suryakumar reveals at the toss that Rohit has been ruled out due to a stomach bug. There was some other big news from the MI camp as Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun makes his debut for the franchise. Rohit’s absence is a big blow for MI, as the five-time IPL-winning captain had scored a half-century in MI’s first win of the season against Delhi Capitals (DC) earlier this week. It was Rohit’s first 50-plus score in the IPL in almost two years.
What is the Impact Player Rule?
The Impact Player is a new rule introduced by the BCCI for the IPL 2022 season. Each team will name four substitutes along with their starting XI on the team sheet before the toss. One of these four substitutes may later take an active part in the match as an impact player. The impact player has to be an Indian if all four foreign players in the team’s playing XI are there, but can be one foreign player if the team has less than four foreign players. An impact player can replace any member of the starting XI before the 14th over of any innings and can bat and bowl all his overs. The captain has the authority to nominate impact players and decide when or whether to use them. A player who has been replaced may not return as a substitute fielder. This rule was first introduced in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakraborty
Mumbai Indians: Ishan Kishan (w), Cameron Green, Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Arjun Tendulkar, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Dwayne Johnson, Riley Meredith
Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Anukul Roy, Mandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora
Mumbai Indians Subs: Rohit Sharma, Ramandeep Singh, Arshad Khan, Vishnu Vinod, Kumar Kartikeya