Here's Why Kane Williamson Is Not Playing Today's Match Against Mumbai Indians

It was surprising to see Manish Pandey at the toss, captaining the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in place of Kane Williamson, against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Friday in Abu Dhabi.

Manish Pandey, who was dropped several games ago, returned to the side and was slotted straight in as the skipper, replacing Kane Williamson. Pandey revealed that the Kiwi is having a niggle on his elbow.

Also, senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is also suffering from a niggle and has been rested; Mohammad Nabi comes into the side and will feature in his third game this season.

This is what Manish Pandey said at the toss: “My first game as IPL captain. Last minute call. Kane had a niggle on his elbow, Bhuvi has a niggle too. We would have batted first too. We will look to bowl first and look to give Bombay little chance. I know they are going to come all guns blazing but we are ready.”

Rohit Sharma wins the toss, elects to bat

Mumbai Indians needed to bat first and luckily for them, Rohit Sharma won the toss. MI have also made a couple of changes: Krunal Pandya and Piyush Chawla come in for Saurabh Tiwary and Jayant Yadav.

Mumbai, who have 12 points, are still in the hunt for the playoffs but would need an incredibly massive, almost unbelievable win to proceed: MI need to win by 171 runs or more and score more than 200 to go past KKR’s net run rate of +0.587. KKR gained a big boost to their NRR with an 86-run victory over RR yesterday.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Jason Roy, Abhishek Sharma, Manish Pandey(c), Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Umran Malik, Siddarth Kaul

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Trent Boult

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