Batter still recovering from hairline fracture on his thumb at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru
Suryakumar’s absence is a significant loss for Mumbai, who have no other specialist Indian international in their batting order apart from captain Rohit Sharma and the biggest buy of the February auction Ishan Kishan.
Since he was bought in 2019, Suryakumar has played a pivotal role as a top-order batter for Mumbai. While the five-time champions failed to make the knockouts last season, Suryakumar continued to flourish. He was their second-leading run-scorer with a tally of 317 at a strike rate of 143.43 and an average of 22. With his ability to float around the batting order, and, importantly accelerate from the time he arrives to the crease, Suryakumar has become a key batter for both Mumbai and India.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo