On Friday evening, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders faced off in match 51 of IPL 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, with the hosts desperate for a win.
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Batting first, KKR got off to a poor start as they lost four wickets in the Powerplay, pacer Nuwan Thushara accounting for three of them. However, thanks to Venkatesh Iyer and impact player Manish Pandey, the visitors recovered to post 169.
MI would've qualified for IPL 2024 playoffs if they released Rohit Sharma, claims journalist
Ahead of the match, there was some big news for MI as it emerged that star batter and India captain Rohit Sharma had not been named in the starting XI, but among the impact substitutes instead. A back niggle was cited as the reason.
The news, however, set tongues wagging and there were several opposing opinions on the move. BEAST Studios founder and CEO Sushant Mehta took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his thoughts, saying that Hardik Pandya's captaincy shone through in the first innings.
Without Rohit Sharma on field Hardik Pandya is shining as captain.
— Sushant Mehta (@SushantNMehta) May 3, 2024
Had MI released Rohit they would have been in the playoffs.
MI's move to bring Hardik Pandya back to the franchise this season, and install him as captain instead of Rohit Sharma has proven divisive, and this is yet another voice in support of the all-rounder. The five-time champions have struggled this season, and look unlikely to make the playoffs barring an exceptional turnaround in form.
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