File photo of Suryakumar Yadav whose return from injury will boosts the beleaguered Mumbai Indians team when they face Delhi Capitals in Mumbai on April 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

It is no stranger to poor starts. But the Indian Premier League’s 17th edition has been stranger than ever before Mumbai Indians. Amidst all the uproar over the change in captaincy, it will be banking on Suryakumar Yadav to mark his arrival in style against Delhi Capitals on Sunday and give MI the much-needed fillip.

Suryakumar has been out of action for almost four months, having recovered from an ankle injury and sports hernia surgery. The 360-degree batter rested from Saturday’s optional training session but sweetly timed the ball to all the corners of the Wankhede Stadium during his prolonged stint on Friday afternoon.

MI management – facing flak for its alleged mishandling of captaincy transition from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya – will be hoping for Suryakumar to ignite its campaign after the team’s three consecutive losses so far in the tournament.

MI will know time is running out for staying in contention for a place in the playoffs.

Ditto is the case with Rishabh Pant’s Delhi Capitals, which is placed second-from-bottom – one place ahead of MI – in the points table.

Injury concerns

While MI camp has a reason to rejoice in Suryakumar’s availability, the Capitals are dealing with injury concerns to its three main bowlers.

Kuldeep Yadav is unlikely to be available due to a groin injury, while Mukesh Kumar underwent a prolonged fitness test after missing the last game. To add to its woes, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will be unavailable for Sunday’s game after hurting himself in DC’s last outing.

Will Pant revive Capitals’ campaign after being blown away by KKR? Or will Suryakumar turn the heat on? Over to Sunday afternoon!

Squads:

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood.

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c&wk), David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Pravin Dubey, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Tristan Stubbs, Ricky Bhui, Kumar Kushagra, Rasikh Dar, Jhye Richardson, Sumit Kumar, Swastik Chikara, Shai Hope.

Time: 3:30PM IST.

Mumbai Indians’ Suryakumar Yadav’s training and unleashing his trademark shots without any visible discomfort, raises hopes for the team against the IPL match against Delhi Capitals
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

In a big boost for struggling Mumbai Indians, world number one T20 batter Suryakumar Yadav trained with the team in Mumbai on April 5 after a long injury layoff and unleashed his trademark shots without any visible discomfort, raising hopes that he could compete in the team’s next IPL match against Delhi Capitals.

Five-time champions Mumbai Indians are languishing at the bottom of the 10-team table, having lost all three matches so far and if Suryakumar plays, the Hardik Pandya-led team will hope that his presence helps them with the anticipated turnaround.

The 33-old aggressive batter has been out of action since January. He underwent a surgery to treat sports hernia and was also nursing an ankle injury which he had sustained during India’s tour of South Africa late last year.

Suryakumar was the first to arrive for the training session at the Wankhede Stadium, more than an hour before his teammates came for the afternoon session.

Suryakumar walked into one of the two nets and batted for more than an hour, not looking to exert himself but getting his body in rhythm and getting his strokes going a few days after he was given the clearance to join the Mumbai Indians’ squad by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) staff.

The right-handed batter unleashed strokes in all parts of the ground while batting against throwdown specialists and MI spinner Kumar Kartikeya. He hit the ball exactly the way he wanted, middling most of his strokes and also practiced his trademark flick shot over the fine-leg region.

The team is coming off a short break after taking a trip to Jamnagar following its third straight loss in the ongoing tournament, the last one being a six-wickets defeat Rajasthan Royals on April 1.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent nets, Delhi Capitals and Australia batter David Warner had a long hit among the others. Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy bowler Mohit Awasthi was also seen bowling to the Delhi Capitals’ batters during their training.