Reports: Rohit Sharma misses captains' meet ahead of IPL opener due to illness

Mumbai Indians' skipper Rohit Sharma was forced to miss the pre-IPL captains' meet and the customary photo shoot on Thursday, March 30 as he is unwell as per several reports.

Barring Rohit representatives from all the other nine teams had assembled at the Narendra Modi Stadium and the pictures of the same were posted on the Indian Premier League's official Twitter account.

The photo shoot also saw Bhuvneshwar Kumar representing Sunrisers Hyderabad in the absence of their designated skipper Aiden Markram who is currently in South Africa due to national commitments.

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Since there are no confirmations regarding the Nagpur-born batter being unavailable, he is likely to play season opener for Mumbai Indians, which is scheduled to be played on Sunday, April 2 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Recently, news related to him being rested for few games due to workload management also surfaced. It is understood that 32-year-old Suryakumar Yadav will be acting as the stand-in captain in Rohit’s absence. With Mumbai Indians 2022 season being fairly poor, Rohit’s unavailability might prove to be a big blow for the Mumbai-based franchise, since he has been the captain of the franchise for over a decade now.

Speaking of his records in the Indian Premier League, he is arguably one of the best batters to have played the league with 5879 runs at an average of 30.30, which also includes 40 half-centuries and a solitary ton.

Along with his batting abilities, he has also been a great leader for his side, wherein he has made the franchise as the most successful one (in terms of trophies won) in the history of the tournament. With the side already missing out on the services of Jasprit Bumrah, one of their strike bowlers, Rohit not being in the Playing XI might prove to be a big-blow for a rather inexperienced batting line-up of the team.