Revealed: Why Luke Wood is not playing today’s match vs Sunrisers Hyderabad and who has replaced him?

In a major blow for the Mumbai Indians (MI), pacer Luke Wood missed out on the all-important clash against the Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Wednesday, March 27.

The 8th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) is being played between Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

Luke Wood joined Mumbai Indians (MI) for INR 50 lakh after the left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff was ruled out of the competition due to an injury. Just before his stint in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, he featured for the Babar Azam-led Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2024.

In 11 matches in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2024, he picked up 12 wickets at an average of 29.08, an economy of 8.24, and a strike rate of 21.16, with the best bowling figures of 2/13.

Luke Wood made his debut for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in their series opener against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. He came in as an impact player for the team but wasn’t able to make any impact with his performance. The pacer gave away 25 runs in his 2 overs and was wicketless.

Luke Wood misses out due to niggle – Hardik Pandya at the toss

Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to field first in the match. Speaking at the toss, newly appointed MI captain Hardik Pandya said that they will be missing the services of Luke Wood in the match as he is carrying a niggle. To replace him in the team, MI brought in young pacer Kwena Maphaka.

Hardik Pandya also said that he is looking forward to spending time with his players to learn more about them.  He said:

“We are going to bowl first. Looks like a good track, we were solid in the last game. Didn’t plan properly, that cost us the game. 13 games to go, we need to keep doing the right things. We are positive and looking forward to the challenge. Just trying to spend time with all the players. Getting to know them better. One change, Luke misses out with a niggle, Maphaka comes in.”

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians will be crucial for both teams as they lost their previous encounters. MI lost against the Gujarat Titans from a winning position while SRH faced a defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders. Just like Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad came very close to winning, but in the end, they weren’t able to cross the finish line.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Gerald Coetzee, Shams Mulani, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Kwena Maphaka

Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Mumbai Indians Subs: Dewald Brevis, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera

Sunrisers Hyderabad Subs: Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Upendra Yadav