The struggling Mumbai Indians received a welcome boost as star batsman Suryakumar Yadav is set to return to action in the Indian Premier League (IPL). According to reports, the right-handed batsman has been given clearance by the BCCI medical team to participate in IPL 2024.
“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 told the Indian Express.
Suryakumar Yadav is likely to feature in Mumbai's next game against the Delhi Capitals on Sunday, April 7.
The five-time champions have endured a disastrous start to their IPL 2024 campaign, losing their first three games under new captain Hardik Pandya. They currently sit at the bottom of the points table.
Both Mumbai's bowling and batting have faltered. In their opener, they fell six runs short of chasing down 169 runs against the Gujarat Titans despite reaching a promising position of 129-3. They then conceded a mammoth 277-3 to the Sunrisers Hyderabad, losing by 31 runs. Their third defeat came at home against the Rajasthan Royals, where they could only muster 125-9, ultimately losing by six wickets.
Yadav hasn't played competitively since December 2023 due to an ankle injury and a sports hernia. He underwent two surgeries and hasn't featured in any recent matches. While he attended a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) before the IPL's start, he wasn't initially cleared.
