Mumbai Indians face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday with two significant selection questions hanging over their lineup. Will Jacks has finally joined the squad and Rohit Sharma has stepped up his training after missing three games with a hamstring injury.
Both latest cricket news are positive but the extent to which either player features today depends on decisions the MI management will make before the toss. Here is where things stand on both fronts.
Will Jacks set to make his IPL 2026 debut
Jacks was expected to be a key figure for MI this season after winning four Player of the Match awards at the T20 World Cup for England. His delayed arrival meant MI fans spent weeks moving from asking when he would join to wondering whether he would join at all before he finally linked up with the squad ahead of last week's loss to CSK.
He did not play that game but put in a long training session at the Wankhede on Monday evening and is now described as ready to slot straight into the XI. His inclusion has been made more certain by the news that Mitchell Santner has been ruled out of the rest of IPL 2026 with a shoulder injury sustained in the CSK game.
That vacancy creates a clear spot and Jacks fills it perfectly. His finishing credentials add depth to a batting lineup that has repeatedly failed to close out games this season and his off-spin could be valuable against SRH's left-hand-heavy top order featuring Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan. Jacks is expected to play today.
Rohit Sharma's return and what the training reports say
Rohit has missed MI's last three games after suffering a hamstring injury in the RCB match on April 12. He missed the PBKS, GT and CSK fixtures and his absence has been felt significantly.
At the time of the injury he was MI's highest run-scorer and his replacement at the top of the order has been a problem the franchise has not solved. Quinton de Kock scored a brilliant 112 in one game but Ryan Rickelton was then dropped and replaced by 22-year-old debutant Danish Malewar who has managed just 2 runs in two appearances.
The opening combination has been unsettled and the results have reflected that.
According to a report by India Today Rohit attended an optional training session after the CSK defeat and trained without reporting any pain or discomfort. He was working through his strokemaking in good rhythm and was joined by Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma in the same session.
The physios are described as optimistic about his availability for today's game. A return would be enormous for a side sitting ninth on the table with two wins from seven games. With Jacks potentially coming in and Rohit potentially returning the MI lineup that faces SRH today could look significantly different from the one that was beaten by CSK. The full picture will be clear at the toss.
