File photo of Rohit Sharma© AFP
Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said that he wants to keep Rohit Sharma on the field as much as possible in the upcoming IPL 2026. During IPL 2025, Rohit mainly played as an Impact Player, with the Indian cricket team star batter not fielding in a number of matches. However, during a press conference on Tuesday, Jayawardene said that he will not be playing as a specialist player who does not take the field at all-something which was recently criticised by former India cricketer Aakash Chopra. The former Sri Lanka batter also pointed out that such a role can end up disrupting Rohit’s rhythm.
“Ro… the way we managed him last year… He had a few niggles so we just needed to manage that,” Jayawardene said.
“The thing is he’s still making a huge impact on the team whether he’s on the field or not. But, definitely, this year, I want to keep him more on the field as much as I can. But the thing is when we are rotating the bowlers or the impact player, at which point that impact player is coming and if all other players need to be on the field at that time [needs to be considered],” he added.
Jayawardene also suggested that most of the people on the Mumbai Indians squad are all-rounders, before joking that only Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav are the people who do not contribute with the ball. As a result, he hinted that there can be a possibility that Rohit can end up playing as an Impact Player in order to give skipper Hardik Pandya more bowling options.
“If you look at it, most of our guys are all-rounders, and they vdo bowl as well. So if the captain needs that option on the field, it’s something that I have to look at and discuss depending on the opposition that we’re playing… The 2 guys who are not all-rounders at the moment are Rohit and Surya (Suryakumar Yadav). So, can you help me with that decision-making process?” he concluded.
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