Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene shared the details about Rohit Sharma’s injury, which left him out of the XI for the LSG clash on Friday. Rohit, who has played as an Impact Player so far in the tournament, hurt his knee during the training session and failed to pass the fitness Test on Friday during the warm-up ahead of the LSG clash. Rohit has been struggling so far this IPL season, having scored 0, 8 and 13 in the three matches he has played. In his absence, Mumbai went ahead with Will Jacks as the opening partner for Ryan Rickelton, but the pair failed to fire.

The MI head coach revealed that Rohit got hit in the knee and couldn’t put any weight on it, which left him in discomfort during the fitness test before the match.

“Rohit got a hit on his knee just in the IT band and he tried to bat yesterday, couldn’t put any weight on it so again he came and did a fitness test early today to try and it was discomfort for him to bat, put weight on that so he felt that it wasn’t 100% for him to play this game so that’s why we precautioned,” Jayawardene said in the post-match press conference.

He suggested that the management and medical staff wait for a positive update on Rohit’s fitness for the next few days.

“We thought give him a few more days to try and get through that unfortunate what happened in the nets,” he added.

‘Entirely up to us on a tactical basis’: Jayawardene on Impact Player

Rohit, who was removed as MI captain last season, retained by the five-time champions for INR 16 crore but the management has used him as a impact player batter in the first three matches as he didn’t take field for the entire match.

Jayawardene had a no-nonsense response to former skipper playing as an impact player and said it’s their decision how to utilise their players.

“I mean this is, the impact and regular there’s not much of a change, it’s a regular, it’s just we’re taking a guy out and bringing a guy in so we’re technically playing it 12 so you shouldn’t read too much into it, it’s just who we impact, who we out is entirely up to us on a tactical basis,” he added.