While they started their Indian Premier League 2017 campaign injury-free, Mumbai Indians have suffered their first setback as Ambati Rayudu has been ruled out of action for their next few matches due to a grade-1 tear to his groin. The middle-order mainstay of the MI set-up will be reassessed after a period of 7-10 days and is expected to miss a major portion the league stage.
"Rayudu has had a scan, he's got a grade-1 tear," said Mahela Jayawardene, the Mumbai Indians coach, on Saturday (April 8). "We'll assess him after about seven to eight days. Then he'll start some casual rehab training. We just need to work on him on a weekly basis and see how best we could get him back to playing fitness. So for now, at least for 10 days he's going to be out and we'll decide after that," he added on the eve of their home game against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede stadium.
Mahela also confirmed that Lasith Malinga and Asela Gunaratne, who have joined the team, will be available for selection for their upcoming match. "Both of them (Malinga and Gunaratne) are available for selection. Except for Rayudu everyone else is healthy," Jayawardene said.
"He (Rayudu) will take at least seven to eight days before he can start his rehab work. And then we'll have to assess him. So I can't put a time-frame (on his comeback), how many days (he'll be out). It has to come from the medical unit, who's looking after him. They'll give me a feedback and whenever we get that feedback we'll be happy to give you that," he added.
Rayudu suffered the injury during the 16th over of RPS chase of 185 and had to be stretchered off the field. Mumbai ended up losing the game with Steven Smith's two sixes off Kieron Pollard in the final over helping the Pune-based franchise win with a delivery to spare.
Against Pune, Mumbai had gone in with a batting heavy line-up, with Hardik Pandya coming as late as No. 8. In Rayudu's absence, Mumbai might think of bringing in an extra spin option, something they missed against Pune, and this could mean the return of Harbhajan Singh.
"Harbhajan wasn't dropped (for the match against Pune). It's just a combination that we decided tactically. Given the opposition, that's the way we wanted to go. They had eight right-handers in the top ten, except for Stokes," Jayawardene said, justifying the exclusion of their premier off-spinner for the game against Pune.
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