Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said the decision to use Rohit Sharma as an ‘impact sub’ wasn’t planned from the beginning. It was made because the team needed more players who could bowl and move quickly in the field. He also mentioned that Rohit had a small injury from India’s Champions Trophy win.
Rohit Sharma’s Role as Impact Player Explained
“No, it wasn’t at the start. Obviously, Ro (Rohit) was on the field in some of the games,” Jayawardene said during MI’s training session when asked if the move was planned from the start of the season.
“But if you look at the composition of the team, most of the guys are doing dual roles; most of them are bowling. At the same time, some of the venues need boundary runners, you need guys with speed and all that so that also comes into play.”
Jayawardene said that Rohit Sharma has been a huge contributor to the team, both with his performances on the field and with his support and leadership off the field.
“Ro was also nursing a niggle from the Champions Trophy so we wanted to make sure that we don’t push him too hard, and we have managed that while (his) batting is the most important thing,” he added.
“If you’ve seen, he’s always been around in the dugout, or he goes in during timeouts, and there’s a lot of communication that’s been happening, so actively involved,” Jayawardene said, highlighting Rohit Sharma’s constant involvement with the team. He also noted that Mumbai Indians have benefited from the success of the opening pair of Rohit and Ryan Rickelton.
Jasprit Bumrah’s Bowling Form Impresses Jayawardene
Mahela Jayawardene, Mumbai Indians’ head coach, spoke about the team’s recent form and individual performances ahead of their key match in IPL 2025. He highlighted the importance of a solid opening pair and praised the efforts of Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.
Talking about the openers, Jayawardene emphasized how crucial a good start is for a team like MI.
“For any team, the openers do play a very valuable part in establishing the innings and especially with the batting lineup that we have, the way we build when we get a good start, it always complements to that,” he said.
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He also reflected on Rohit Sharma’s contributions over the years, noting that while big scores have been rare recently, his quick starts have still played a role. “It’s just that even though Ro, probably (in) the last few years, he hadn’t (had) those big scores but he was trying to give us that impetus as well — even though I was in the head coach, I was watching — he used to get those quick 20s or 30s but couldn’t convert.”
On the bowling front, Jayawardene was pleased with Jasprit Bumrah’s rhythm and increasing pace after his recovery. “He made a good recovery and it didn’t take long for him to get into the stride as well. That’s a good thing about Jasprit that he’s got a lot of control, confidence in how he wants to go about and he gives us a completely different dimension to this attack,” he said.
“He’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with him. We’ve monitored him, his pace is getting better and better, so execution is better, we saw that in the last game as well, he was quite aggressive and how he wanted to go about it,” Jayawardene added.
Looking ahead, the MI coach believes that playing two of their final three games at home could be an advantage in the playoff race. However, he isn’t reading too much into Tuesday’s game as a virtual knockout. “When I saw the schedule, I knew that having to play your last two games out of the three at home obviously was a good thing. We were starting away from home, so we knew that might come into play, and it has come to play.
“I haven’t thought about the playoffs. There are five (or) six teams with KKR winning yesterday (Sunday) as well, so there’s different permutations, and I’m not going to even go through that, how everything’s going to unfold,” he said.
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