Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene has said that regular skipper Rohit Sharma needed extra few days after coming from England and will be available for MI’s next game against Kolkata Knight Riders. Notably, Rohit Sharma and star all-rounder, Hardik Pandya missed the match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which was played in Dubai.

“Rohit was batting and doing his running, after coming back from the UK, we probably felt he needed extra few days so he should be fine to play the next game. Hardik was training, had a niggle, so precaution and giving him extra days, not nothing serious,” Jayawardene said during a virtual post-match conference.

CSK vs MI, IPL 2021: Report | Highlights

“Well, I think the pitch was not doing much, to be honest, in the second innings, the wicket was pretty good. The odd one sat up a little. I agree we probably gave a couple of soft dismissals, we probably needed someone to take responsibility and bat through the innings which we did not do. That was the difference with CSK with Ruturaj Gaikwad doing that for them,” Jayawardene added.

Mumbai Indians fell well short of a 157-run target as Saurabh Tiwary waged a lone battle with his 8th IPL fifty. But it was not enough as Deepak Chahar (2/19) and Dwayne Bravo (3/27) ran through the Mumbai Indians batting unit that did not have Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya with both their star players resting for the resumption of the season.

“Even though they lost wickets there was a set batsman who went till the end. We are disappointed with how we handled the situation.

Talking about Mumbai Indians batting, Jayawardene said: “Not really, I mean we struggled in Chennai in the first half as we did not get used to the conditions. Here also, you know, it was not the easiest wicket, but probably needed some application. I put it down to game awareness and taking responsibility. The application out there is something we need to work on.”