Mumbai, April 15 (IANS) The Mumbai Indians team management is keeping under wraps the availability of former captain Rohit Sharma for Thursday’s match against Punjab Kings, with the team spokesman providing no information about him on Wednesday.

At the start of the pre-match press conference ahead of the Mumbai Indians’ key encounter with PBKS, the media manager informed that no decision had been taken on Rohit’s availability.

“The medical team and team management are still assessing him, and you will get to know as and when we will get to know,” said the update from the team’s media manager at the start of the press conference.

The 38-year-old Rohit had suffered a hamstring injury and had retired hurt in their previous match against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He did not turn up for training on Tuesday and on Wednesday made a late appearance towards the end of the session — his right leg strapped around the hamstring area, but did not bat. The 38-year-old former Indica captain has reportedly undergone some scans, raising doubts that the injury is quite serious and thus makes him doubtful for the PBKS match.

The MI team management has also not put out details of the extent of his injury, which has fueled speculation that IPL’s most successful player with five titles is likely to miss the next match… and may be more than one game.

His unavailability is likely to cause more disruption in the team at a stage when it can ill afford that. Rohit had started IPL 2026 with a brilliant 78 in MI’s victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede. He followed that up with 35 against the Delhi Capitals. He was just looking to get going in the match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru while chasing a massive target before disaster struck, and he had to walk off the middle.

If Rohit is unavailable, as is being expected on Wednesday evening, the Mumbai Indians will have to totally rework their plans, as bringing in Quinton de Kock as an opener will make it necessary to change the combination of foreign players, with Sherfane Rutherford losing his spot in the middle-order.

There is another theory doing the rounds, according to which MI will bring in Rohit as an Impact Substitute only to blast a few big ones at the start of the inning.

Whatever the MI think tank decides, it looks clear that they will take a final call on Rohit’s availability late on Thursday.

–IANS

bsk/