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Ahead of his side's Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher said that skipper Rohit Sharma is fit to play the match against the South Indian side on Sunday.
MI will start their IPL 2023 campaign against RCB on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. There were some doubts over Rohit's status for the side's first game as he had missed a photoshoot featuring all IPL captains in Ahmedabad. But the coach has put all the doubts to rest. "Yes, Rohit is fit. He has trained for the last two days and is 100 per cent ready to go. I think he did not feel particularly well that morning and just as a precaution, we told him to stay at home," Boucher said at a pre-match press conference. "There are a lot of photo shoots the boys have had to do. He has not had a lot of time to himself so we thought it was better," he added. England pacer Jofra Archer will be leading the five-time champions' pace attack in absence of India's Jasprit Bumrah. Boucher said that the pacer had skipped an optional training session but will be playing in the match against RCB. "Jofra is good, he is 100 per cent ready for tomorrow. He did not train today, it was an optional training session. He felt that he was ready to put the spikes on tomorrow. We are very happy with his progression since he has been with us. He will be playing tomorrow," said the coach. After a disappointing 2022 season, which saw the side finish at the bottom with only four wins in 10 matches, Boucher does not want to look back on it. "I cannot comment too much about last year, I was not there. But we have spoken about it, some new talents in the team, new energy, some guys who have done really well in the previous IPLs. They understand that last year we did not have a good season but things can change very quickly, energies have been good, we are in a good space. If we get off to a good start, great, if we do not, we will definitely not panic. The IPL is not won in April or March, it' is won in May. Hopefully, we can get a good start and get some momentum," said Boucher. Mumbai Indians: Squad strength - 24 (Overseas 8)Players bought in IPL Auction 2023 - Cameron Green (INR 17.5 crore), Jhye Richardson (INR 1.5 crore), Piyush Chawla (INR 50 lakh), Duan Jansen (INR 20 lakh), Vishnu Vinod (INR 20 lakh), Shams Mulani (INR 20 lakh), Mehal Wadhera (INR 20 lakh), Raghav Goyal (INR 20 lakh) Players retained - Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal. (ANI)
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