Mumbai Indians find themselves in precarious position in the ongoing IPL 2024 where they have won just three of their 10 matches so far in the season to stand in the ninth position in the points table, leaving their campaign hanging in balance. However, with Mumbai in a do-or-die battle against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday, former captain Rohit Sharma was missing from the playing XI for the match.

Ahead of the start of the match, broadcasters JioCinema informed that Rohit had arrived at the venue at 5:30 PM IST and has been at the batting nets ever since, before they played out visuals of the India captain gearing up for the big battle against KKR at home. The experts on JioCinema then reckoned that it was probably because Rohit lacked pre-game practice time in Thursday with BCCI holding a press conference in Mumbai for the T20 World Cup tournament.

However, after toss, where Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya opted to field first, the playing XI revealed that Rohit's name was missing. Hardik too did not mention any detail on Rohit's absence, which only indicates that the veteran cricketer will probably be part of the lineup in the second innings as an impact player. Although, a visual from the Wankhede Stadium revealed that he might be injured.

IPL 2024, MI vs KKR Live Score

Just as the likes of Graeme Smith and Brett Lee looked for reasons behind Rohit's absence from the Mumbai Indians XI, broadcasters showed Rohit having a chat with team mentor Sachin Tendulkar, where his gestures hinted at a possible back up which he might have incurred during practice.

With MI bowling first, Rohit will certainly get adequate rest time before the management takes a call on his inclusion.

Mumbai made just one change in their line-up - Naman Dhir in for Mohammad Nabi.

"It's always about playing for pride, it looks quite tough for us but at the same time, we want to play good cricket, feels good to be back home. Looks like a good track, it's a fresh wicket so thought that bowling first will be good," Hardik said at toss.

Kolkata, however, did not make any changes to their line-up.

"It's always about doing the small things well, obviously the dew is a factor but we have to keep that out of mind. The message is clear, each one of them knows their role and responsibility. Batting first, we are going with the same team," said KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Tim David, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy

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