Rohit Sharma (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)
Mumbai: Rohit Sharma has been in the news more for his evasive form than his batting in IPL-2026. Plagued by an old hamstring injury, the 39-year-old played eight matches for Mumbai Indians, where he scored 283 runs at an average of 40.42, with a strike rate of 160.70.
The injury caused the former India skipper to miss a few matches, and after his return, he only emerged as an ‘impact player’ for MI. Amid concerns over his fitness, Rohit was named in India’s ODI squad for the three-match series in Afghanistan in June, but “subject to fitness”. However, ahead of his side’s final match of IPL-2026 against Rajasthan Royals at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, MI coach Mahela Jayawardene insisted that “Rohit is 100% fit”.
“I think even before he got injured as well, we used him (Rohit) in a couple of matches. We feel that (in) some matches he was affected (used as an impact player), I explained. It’s just about making the team and the people we want in the field have to be in the field. To be honest, I don’t think about the Indian team or their requirements when I am assembling a team for Mumbai Indians. I have prepared it and Rohit understands that he is also a team player,” he said.
He understands what is required of Mumbai Indians and we are doing that. Yes, he had a hamstring injury. We gave him the time he needed to recover from that and then he came back. (In) the first match also, we were careful even with his strikes, the way he was running because he had to adapt to it slowly, and gradually get back to it. But for me, as a medical team, everything is 100%. “We are not putting him on the field because of what we have done in the past as well,” Jayawardene said at the pre-match press conference here on Saturday.“It’s just a collective group and has nothing to do with it. I hope it doesn’t affect the talks or anything that happens outside this bubble,” the former Sri Lanka captain added.Jayawardene revealed that pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who endured IPL-2026 regularity – taking just four wickets @ 102.00, at an economy rate of 8.36 in 13 matches – played in the 2026 T20 World Cup with “inconvenience”, meaning he had to be allowed to “gradually build up or overcome that inconvenience” until his “pace declined relative to the team”. “The first four or five games.” Incredibly, despite the injury, Bumrah finished his career with 14 wickets in eight matches at 12.42, at an economy rate of 6.21, playing a stellar role in India’s victory in the tournament. Asked if fatigue after a grueling T20 World Cup campaign had played a role in Bumrah’s decline in form for MI in the IPL, Jayawardene replied: “Yes, I think (Bumrah’s performance in the IPL) is a combination of a few things. I think after I came back from the World Cup as well, he had a little discomfort that he played with during the World Cup.”
So, we gave him enough rest to come back. So, in the first four or five games, there was a gradual build-up to him getting over that nuisance he was having. So, you can see that the pace has decreased because of that. After that, he is now back at his pace. In the last four or five games, he’s been good. But obviously when you go through something like that, you lose a little bit of the sharpness of the execution and it’s all because you’re fighting something else.
“But I think from a health standpoint, it’s 100 percent unfortunate that the season is over for us.”Jayawardene also noted that teams played Bumrah cautiously, meaning MI “were not able to create pressure around him”. However, he made it clear that Bumrah will “come back strong” from this low point. “And I think teams didn’t take too much risk against him in certain situations. They played him because we couldn’t create pressure around him as well, meaning the other bowlers couldn’t create that pressure that we needed.
So, tactically, teams played him differently. So, like I said, I can’t say that’s just one thing. There was a combination of quite a few things.
But I don’t worry about Poms. I think he’s in good spirits. The MI coach assured that he will come back strong.Jayawardene admitted that it has not been an easy season for MI skipper Hardik Pandya, who missed a few matches due to back pain, got injured, and led his team to continuous defeats.
Hardik’s frustration came to the fore when he broke the stumps in anger after seeing a potential catch spilled in the last over, as the ball fell between Deepak Chahar and Robin Means. “I think in this situation, it’s obviously frustrating for any player.
I mean you can’t read too much into it. But yeah, the same frustration he felt on the field. We also had him in the dugout because that was a crucial chance in that situation because I think Roffman (Powell) was about 8 or 10 runs short at the time.
So, it would have created more pressure on those wickets. Considering they only had one or two batsmen left, we could have created something. But overall, I think it’s difficult not just for Hardik, but for all of us to go through a season where we know we have the talent, we have the team, but we haven’t been able to execute and perform to the best of our ability. We did well in certain parts and not so well in others.
So, it’s a constant frustration. So, this is across the team, this is across the franchise.“So, this is something we need to understand. As I said, we are recalibrating, reviewing and discussing what went wrong and all that. But this we should think about after the season, but not now,” Jayawardene explained.Asked about his conversation in a situation where Bumrah, MI’s leading bowler, is in trouble, coming off a rare phase of poor form, Jayawardene said: “Yes, it was a good conversation, and Bumrah is very experienced now.
I think he knew as well, so it was a group conversation with his coaching staff as well, like where do we push him and how do we, because of the workload management as well, limit how much he can throw into the back of the net in preparation.
So in the beginning we tried to keep him tactical as well in situations so he wouldn’t be under too much pressure, but being a key player, he’s always under pressure.But we’ve used him in different ways this season to give him more freedom, but he understands that.
He comes back and smiles and says, of course it worked. Let’s try something different. It was a good conversation. I think we all learn from these types of seasons and manage all of that. But one thing is certain, there is no doubt that he has done his best in these six or eight weeks to get back to where he should be. I mean, the last few games, he’s been top-notch.
He was once again bowling 140-142kmph, nailing the York side. He had some problems in the lead up, only because it was due to the defeats he was suffering. He’s been playing a fair amount of snaps this season, if you remember. This is about accumulation. And that’s something he came back to and worked on, like whenever we had long breaks, he worked on that. So I can’t take anything away from his work and what he puts off off the field. It’s just that this did not happen on the field. But we had good conversations and we know what we have to do,” Jayawardene explained.“We tried, it didn’t work, but we just need to get through it,” Mahela concluded.