IPL 2022: No added advantage of playing in Mumbai, says Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Indians, who, buoyed by a vociferous home crowd, would tend to win all their seven games at the Wankhede Stadium, which had become their impregnable fortress. With the entire league stage of IPL-2022 happening in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune, MI will get to play at their bastion Wankhede after two years. In fact, they are the only team in the competition which will get to play at their home venue and home city. However, at a pre-season media conference on Wednesday which he addressed along with coach Mahela Jayawardene, skipper Rohit Sharma said he didn't think that it would be an "added advantage" for MI, as most of the players in his new-look team have hardly played in Mumbai.

"It's a relatively new team. I don't believe in added advantage because 70-80 per cent of the guys haven't played in Mumbai before, so there's no such thing as added advantage. Only myself, Surya, Pollard, Ishan and Bumrah have played in Mumbai a lot, others have not. We are playing here after two years. We have not played a single game in Mumbai, in fact, other franchises have played in Mumbai last year, we didn't. So, no advantage," Rohit said. The biggest concern for MI at the moment is the availability of their dashing India batsman Suryakumar Yadav, who might have to sit out of the team's opener against Delhi Capitals on March 27 as he is unlikely to fully recover from a hairline fracture on his thumb.

"Surya is at NCA (National Cricket Academy in Bangalore) at the moment. He is recovering well. He will be here soon. I can't give you (information about) his availability (right) now, whether he will be available for the first game or not, but we are trying to get him as soon as possible, once we have the clearance from the NCA,"