MUMBAI: Rohit Sharma has been in the news more due to his dodgy fitness than his batting in IPL-2026. Hampered by the recurrence of an old hamstring injury, the 39-year-old batter has played eight matches for the Mumbai Indians, in which he has scored 283 runs at an average of 40.42, with a strike rate of 160.70. The injury caused the former India captain to miss a few games, and after return, he has only featured as an ‘Impact Player’ for MI. Amidst concerns around his fitness, Rohit was named in India’s ODI team for the three-match series in Afghanistan in June, but with a ‘subject to fitness’ condition. However, ahead of his team’s final match of IPL-2026 against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene has insisted that “Rohit is 100% fit.” “I think even before he got injured as well, we used him (Rohit) in a couple of games. We feel that (in) a few games he was impacted (used as an Impact Player), like I explained. It is purely on the team combination and the people that we want on the field have to be on the field. To be honest, I don’t think about the Indian team or what their requirement when I am assembling a team for Mumbai Indians. I set it up and Rohit understands that he is a team player. He understands what is required for Mumbai Indians and we go about it. Yes, he had a hamstring injury. We gave him the time that he needed to recover from that and then he came back. (In the) the first game also, we were cautious even with his batting, the way he was running because he had to adapt to it slowly, gradually coming back into it. But for me, the medical team, everything is 100%. We are not putting him on the field because of what we have done in the past as well,” Jayawardene said at the pre-match press conference here on Saturday.“It is just a team combination and it has nothing to do with it. I hope that it doesn’t impact whatever the conversations or whatever is happening outside this bubble,” the former Sri Lankan captain added.Jayawardene revealed that ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who endured an ordinary IPL-2026-he took just four wickets@102.00, at an economy rate of 8.36 in 13 matches- played in the 2026 T20 World Cup “with a niggle,” which meant that he had to be allowed a “gradual build-up or him to get over that niggle” as even “his pace had dropped for the first four-five games.” Incredibly, despite the injury, Bumrah finished with 14 wickets in eight matches@12.42, at an economy rate of 6.21, to play a stellar role in India’s triumph in the tournament. Quizzed on whether fatigue after a gruelling T20 World Cup campaign played a part in Bumrah’s performance dipping for MI in the IPL, Jayawardene replied, “Yes, I think (Bumrah’s performance in IPL) a combination of a few things. I think coming back from the World Cup as well, he had a slight niggle with which he played through the World Cup. So, we gave him adequate rest to come back. So, the first four-5 games, it was a gradual build-up for him to get over that niggle that he had. So, you could see the pace had dropped because of that. And then, now he is back to his pace. The last four-five games, he has been good. But obviously, when you are going through something like that, you do lose a little bit of sharpness of execution and all that because you are fighting something else. But I think health-wise, it is 100% unfortunate that the season is over for us.”Jayawardene also pointed out that teams had played Bumrah cautiously, which means that MI “weren’t able to create pressure around him.” However, he exuded that Bumrah would “come back strong” from this low phase. “And I think the teams have not taken too much risk against him in certain situations. They have played him out because we haven’t been able to create pressure around him as well in the sense that the other bowlers haven’t been able to create that pressure that we needed to. So, tactically, the teams have played him differently. So, like I said, I can’t say this is just one thing. There was a combination of quite a few things. But I don’t worry about Booms (Bumrah). I think he is in good spirits. And he will come back strong,” the MI head coach asserted.Jayawardene admitted that it wasn’t an easy season for MI skipper Hardik Pandya, who missed a few matches due to back spams, was injured, and led his team to continuous defeats. Hardik’s frustration came to the fore when he broke the stumps in anger after seeing a potential catch being spilled in the last game, as the ball fell between Deepak Chahar and Robin Minz. “I think in that situation, obviously, it is frustrating for any bowler. I mean, you can’t read too much into it. But yes, the same frustration he had on the field. We also had in the dugout because that was a crucial chance in that situation because I think Rovman (Powell) was about 8 or 10 runs at that time. So, that would have created a bit more pressure on that wicket. And given they only had another one or two batsmen left, we could have created something. But overall, I think it is hard not just for Hardik, but for all of us to go through a season where we know that we have the talent, we have the squad, but we were not able to execute and perform to the best of our ability. And we’ve done well in certain parts and not done well in other parts. So, it is a constant frustration. So, that’s across the squad, that’s across the franchise.“So, that’s something that we need to understand. And like I said, we reset, review and discuss what went wrong and all that. But that’s for us to think about after the season, but not right now,” Jayawardene elaborated.Asked about his conversation in a situation in which Bumrah, MI’s leading bowler, bothered by a niggle, is enduring a rare phase of poor form, Jayawardene said, “Yeah, so it was good conversation, and Boom’s very experienced now. I think he knew as well, so it was a collective conversation with his training staff as well, like where do we push him and how do we, because of workload management as well, how much he could bowl in nets on preparation. So initially we tried to tactically also hold him in situations so that he’s not too under pressure, but being a lead bowler, he’s always under pressure.But we used him in different ways this season so that it does give him a bit more freedom, but he understands that. He comes back and he smiles and says, of course it worked. Let’s try something different. So it’s been a good conversation. I think we all learn from these kinds of seasons and manage all that. But one thing for sure, there’s no doubt that he put in during these six or eight weeks to get back to where he should be. I mean, the last few games, he was top-notch. He was back again bowling that 140-142 kmph mark, he was nailing the Yorkers. He had a few issues with his run-up, purely because it was with the niggle that he had. He was bowling quite a few no balls this season, if you remember. That’s to do with the build-up. So that’s something that he again went back and worked on, like whenever we had long breaks, he was working on that. So I can’t take anything away from his work and what he puts off the field. It’s just that it didn’t happen on the field. But we’ve had good conversations and we know what we needed to do,” Jayawardene explained.“We tried, it didn’t work, but we just need to move on from that,” Mahela concluded.
