Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya missed the match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 4 and Suryakumar Yadav led the team in his absence. Suryakumar said that Pandya is unwell and the official word from the MI camp was that he has had back spasms. After MI chased down 229 against LSG, opener Ryan Rickelton was asked to give an update about the all-rounder’s injury and when will he able to regain full fitness. Rickelton said that he is unaware about the situation and only learned that the skipper isn’t playing hours before the match.
“I don't know when he's expected to be back. I found out this afternoon that he had back spasms, so I'm unaware of the extent of it. I don't want to call it an injury; I'm unaware of the extent of how bad it is or what he's feeling. But I'm sure he'll be with the group again as we head to Raipur this week,” Rickelton said in the post-match press conference.
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Meanwhile, Rickelton was played 'Player of the match' for his 32-ball 83 laced with eight sixes and six fours. He shared a 143-run opening partnership with Rohit Sharma who scored 84 runs from 44 deliveries.
Pandya struggles as captain and all-rounder
Pandya has struggled with both bat and ball. Key players being out of form hasn't helped the team's cause either. From eight games, he has scored 146 runs at an average of 20.85 and strike rate of 136.44. He has only four wickets to his name at an average of 61.50. His economy rate is 11.90 runs per over.
MI still alive in playoffs race
MI’s playoffs chances hang on a delicate thread. They have lost seven out for 10 games and are placed ninth on the points table. Pandya will have plenty of time to recover from back spasms. Their next match is against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 10 at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur. They need to win their remaining four matches at the league stage and hope other permutations and combinations work in their favour to finish in top four.