Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher confirmed that skipper Rohit Sharma and pacer Jofra Archer are fit for their IPL opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday.
There were speculations that Rohit might not be available for the opening game as he had missed the captains’ photo shoot in Ahmedabad. But Boucher dispelled all rumours.
“Yes, Rohit is fit. He has trained for the last two days and is 100 per cent ready to go. I think he didn’t feel particularly well that morning and just as a precaution, we told him to stay at home,” Boucher said at the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
“There are a lot of photo shoots the boys have had to do. He’s not had a lot of time to himself so we thought it was better,” he added.
In Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, England pacer Jofra Archer, who himself is coming off a long injury layoff, will lead the MI pace attack.
“Jofra is good, he is 100 per cent ready for tomorrow. He didn’t train today, it was an optional training session. He felt that he was ready to put the spikes on tomorrow. We are very happy with his progression since he has been with us. He’ll be playing tomorrow.”
The five-time champion had a poor last season where it finished 10th but Boucher doesn’t want to look back as he wasn’t in charge back then.
“I can’t comment too much about last year I wasn’t there. But we have spoken about it, some new talents in the team, new energy, some guys who have done really well in the previous IPLs.
“They understand that last year we didn’t have a good season but things can change very quickly, energies have been good, and we are in a good space.” “If we get off to good start great, if we don’t we’ll definitely not panic. The IPL is not won in April or March, it’s won in May. Hopefully, we can get a good start and get some momentum.”
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