DC vs MI: Revealed - Why is Gerald Coetzee not playing today's IPL 2024 match and who has replaced him?

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya confirmed the absence of their frontline pacer Gerald Coetzee from their playing XI for their clash against Delhi Capitals today. 

Hardik Pandya, after winning the toss and electing to bowl first, revealed that Gerald Coetzee could not make it to the playing XI due to a minor stomach bug. In his absence, MI have brought in English pacer Luke Wood, who will be playing only his second game of his debut Indian Premier League season. 

The left-arm pacer had last appeared during Mumbai Indians' IPL 2024 season opener against the Gujarat Titans on March 24th at the Narendra Modi stadium. "Coetzee has a stomach bug, Luke Wood comes in for him," Hardik Pandya said during toss time. 

How impactful has Gerald Coetzee been for MI?

Gerald Coetzee has had an impactful IPL 2024 season so far. In only his debut season in the richest cricketing league of the world, Coetzee has settled in perfectly along with senior Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who is currently the leading wicket-taker of the season. 

But Gerald Coetzee isn't far behind from Bumrah. The South African is just a wicket away from joining the veteran MI pacer as the joint highest wicket-taker of the season. While Bumrah has registered 13 wickets so far, Coetzee has scalped 12 wickets from 8 matches for the 5-time champions. 

In thos 8 matches, the 23-year-old has bowled 171 deliveries and has conceded 288 runs. His best figures are of 4/34 but the only alarming thing about his bowling is the economy rate. Coetzee has poor economy of 10.11 and this indicates that his death bowling isn't as effective. 

Luke Wood gets thrashed for 19 runs in the 1st over 

His absence from the clash against the Delhi Capitals has definitely hurt the Mumbai Indians. Coetzee usually opens the bowling for MI but today it was his replacement, left-arm seamer Luke Wood, who started the proceedings for his team. And it didn't go down that well. 

DC's Aussie opening batsman Jake Fraser-McGurk smashed 19 runs off Luke Wood's first over of the match and initiated the match with raining sixes and fours. McGurk is carrying on the form he picked up in the previous matches against Lucknow, Gujarat and Hyderabad.

During Delhi's victory against Gujarat Titans in their previous game at the Arun Jaitley stadium, McGurk had scored a quickfire 23 runs. His previous two half-centuries came against the Sunrisers and the Super Giants from Lucknow. If he keeps on batting like this, then Delhi's chances of reaching the play-offs might as well increase.

Mumbai and Delhi's remaining IPL 2024 fixtures after match no. 43

After their game against the DelhI Capitals, Mumbai still have 5 more games to play. Their next match will be against the Lucknow Super Giants on 30th of April before taking on KKR, SRH then KKR and LSG again on 3, 6, 11 and 17 May. 

Delhi Capitals on the other hand have their upcoming games against the Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Bengaluru and Lucknow on 29th April, 7th, 12th and 14th May respectively.