Rohit Sharma’s experience not needed, says Suryakumar Yadav! Subs former MI captain out against CSK

Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah aren’t playing the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) opening clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Interim captain Suryakumar Yadav knew this very well.

Rohit Sharma subbed out by Suryakumar Yadav

Despite that and defending just 156 runs against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, SKY decided that the player he’ll use to bring in an an impact substitute will be Rohit Sharma.

Apart from being a former captain who took MI to 6 titles, including the IPL and Champions League, Rohit is also the second-most capped player in the IPL’s history after MS Dhoni.

But Suryakumar decided that Rohit would be the one who’d leave the field in the second innings and decided to bring in Vignesh Puthur. The left-arm spinner was bought for Rs 30 lakh at the IPL 2025 auction by MI and will bowl for the first time in the tournament.

Is fitness, an issue?

Therefore, one would assume that having someone like Rohit by his side would be helpful. Well, Suryakumar decided otherwise. SKY has himself played 151 matches in the IPL, but Rohit is considered to be the second-best captain in the league after Dhoni.

One can’t be sure whether it was fitness reasons why Rohit didn’t continue. That’s because MI had played two wicketkeepers: Ryan Rickelton and Robin Minz. The latter could have been taken out, but in the end, it was Rohit. A peculiar decision, one must say.

MI Playing XI vs CSK

Vignesh Puthur (replaces Rohit Sharma), Ryan Rickelton (wk)✈️, Will Jacks✈️, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner✈️ Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult✈️, Satyanarayana Raju