Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene has explained why the Mumbai Indians team is fielding Rohit Sharma as an impact player in IPL 2025. Jayawardene has revealed that Rohit has been suffering from swallowing problems since the Champions Trophy. Rohit played an important role in India's title win in this tournament. Rohit did not play against Lucknow Super Giants this season after being hit by a ball in the knee. Rohit has played as an impact player in most of the matches in IPL 2025.

There was no strategy to field Rohit as an impact player.

Mumbai Indians are now to face Gujarat Titans and before this match, Jayawardene said that the team's strategy was not to field Rohit as an impact player. The Mumbai Indians coach also said that he does not want to put much pressure on this opener as he is currently battling an injury and his batting is important for him.

Jayawardene does not want to put pressure on Rohit.

Jayawardene said, no, it was not there in the beginning. Rohit was on the field for a few matches, but if you look at the team combination, most of the players are playing dual roles and in some places, you need boundary runners. You need pacers, so that also comes into play and Rohit is also suffering from a small injury from the Champions Trophy, so we wanted to make sure that we don't put too much pressure on him, manage that because his batting is the most important thing.

Jayawardene said that being an impact player, Rohit is guiding the players from outside despite sitting on the bench. Jayawardene said Rohit has contributed a lot even if he is on the field or not. I think you have seen that he is always in the dugout or goes in during the timeout and a lot of discussion is happening, so there is a lot of activity in it, but this is the overall plan for us to make sure that we have all the necessary bowling options on the field. We also have many senior players. Most likely Suryakumar Yadav or Tilak Verma or some such domestic batsman is out, so it is a tough choice for me, but it is a headache.

PC Social media