Mumbai Indians skipper and Mumbai Indians opener Rohit Sharma was forced to serve as a substitute for leg-spinner Piyush Chawla in the IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders said he was forced to serve as a substitute due to “mild stiffness in his back.”
An impact substitute, Rohit scored just 11 runs off 12 balls in the second innings in a 24-run loss to KKR that almost knocked the five-time champions out of this year’s IPL.
“He just has a slight stiffness in his back, so it’s just a precaution,” Chawla told the media after the game at the Wankhede Stadium.
Mumbai’s defeat, their eighth in 11 games, essentially closed the door on the Hardik Pandya-led side, with Chawla admitting they are left with only “pride” .
“For pride and reputation, because sometimes when you get on the field you don’t think about whether you’re going to qualify,” he said.
“You have to fight for your name and that’s why we fight for it,” he added.
Chawla pointed out that MI could not gain momentum at any stage in this IPL and that was the reason for their poor performance.
“You must have often heard that T20 is all about motivation, we just didn’t get it this season and this can happen to any team,” he said.
“This isn’t the first time it’s happened to us, and it’s not the second time it’s happened to any other team. It could happen to anybody, it’s just that this momentum isn’t our way.”
The 35-year-old Chawla on Friday surpassed Dwayne Bravo to take 184 wickets to become the second-highest wicket-taker in the IPL.
“It has been a great journey because the IPL started 17 years ago and no one had such a big preference for spinners but now if you see the top wicket-takers in India, especially all spinners The players, Ashwin, Uchi and myself, so it’s a good feeling,” he said.
Chawla also praised Manish Pandey for his performance in pressure situations in the first game of the season. Pandey added 83 runs for the sixth wicket along with Venkatesh Iyer as KKR posted 169 in 19.5 overs.
“It was a good partnership and credit should go to them because they batted the ball beautifully. Well, T20s are something where experience plays a big role, as we saw today.
“When Manish walked in, maybe if someone had walked in and he must have played a few games, he would have panicked because he wasn’t running.
“But he read the situation and the way he handled it, because if you saw it in the starting lineup, he could barely run the ball. But then, he knew he had to stand with Vinky.”
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