India and MI’s star middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav has been declared fit to play by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for the upcoming Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals match at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday (April 7). Surya will return to cricket action after three months of recovery and rehab at the NCA. The BCCI and staff at NCA did not want to risk the batter’s chances of getting injured again when he returned to action so that’s why they took as much time as possible to analyze Yadav’s fitness.

“He is fit now. The NCA made him play a few practice games and he looked good. He can join the Mumbai Indians team. We wanted to be sure that when Surya goes back to MI, he is 100 percent fit and ready to play games. He wasn’t feeling 100% during his first fitness Test before the IPL, so we waited to see if there was any pain while he was batting,” a source in the BCCI confirmed to the Indian Express. (SRH vs CSK Match Tickets Being Black Market? Mohammed Azharuddin Makes Bold Accusations)

Suryakumar Yadav endured a grade II ankle tear during the T20I series in South Africa, initially sidelining him for seven weeks. However, a subsequent hernia injury necessitated surgery, prolonging his absence until now.

The return of Yadav, ICC’s top-ranked T20I batsman, comes as a much-needed boost for the struggling Mumbai Indians. With three consecutive defeats in the IPL 2024 season, skipper Hardik Pandya has faced mounting criticism from fans in every match.

After losing three consecutive matches at the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya said that they will continue fighting in the T20 tournament.

In MI’s previous encounter against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Pandya scored the highest for Mumbai with 34 off 21 deliveries, while Tilak Varma played a crucial knock of 32 runs in 29 balls, taking MI to 125/9 after Rajasthan bowlers absolutely bossed Mumbai batters in their homecoming match on Monday.

Pandya took to his official X (formerly Twitter) account and said that the Mumbai-based franchise will not give up in the ongoing season of IPL.

“If there’s one thing you should know about this team, we never give up. We’ll keep fighting, we’ll keep going,” Pandya wrote on X. (MS Dhoni Troll Trollers By Singing ‘Bole Jo Koyal’ Song In Viral Video)

Summarizing the match, after winning the toss, RR opted to bowl first. Trent Boult (3/22) destroyed the MI top-order in the powerplay, reducing them to 20/4. A 56-run partnership between skipper Hardik Pandya (34 in 21 balls, with six fours) and Tilak Varma (32 in 29 balls, with two sixes) brought some order into the innings briefly before MI experienced a collapse again to end at 125/9 in 20 overs.

Yuzvendra Chahal (3/11) and Nandre Burger (2/32) bowled well for RR and rocked the MI batting line-up with regular wickets, never giving them a chance to breathe.

In the run chase, RR lost openers Jos Buttler (13), Yashasvi Jaiswal (10) while skipper Sanju Samson could make only 12 in 10 balls. Reduced to 48/3, they were in a tricky situation. But Riyan Parag once again performed a brilliant rescue act, scoring 54* in 39 balls, with five fours and three sixes to take his side to a six-wicket win with 27 balls left.

Akash Madhwal (3/20) was the pick of the bowlers for MI.

Following the win, the Rajasthan-based franchise stand at the top place of the standings with six points at a net run rate of +1.249. On the other hand, Hardik Pandya’s side are at the bottom of the table and are yet to score points.