Guwahati, April 6 (IANS) Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling coach Paras Mhambrey has confirmed that skipper Hardik Pandya will be available for the team’s upcoming IPL 2026 game against Rajasthan Royals, to be played at ACA Stadium on Tuesday.

Pandya had missed the previous match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, which they lost by six wickets, due to illness. He then returned to the MI nets in Guwahati on Sunday night, where he bowled and batted in fine rhythm.

“He will be available. He had a good couple of hours of net sessions yesterday, so he is fit and fine. He wasn’t injured, he was unwell, that’s the reason he missed the game,” said Mhambrey in the pre-match press conference.

Pandya’s absence in the last game forced MI to tweak their combination, with South African all-rounder Corbin Bosch coming in for Trent Boult, while Deepak Chahar came into the side as well.

“Well, I think that is something that you will have to take care of. Injuries are something that you can’t control. But I think we got the team, we got enough guys out there to mix and match, and looking at the surface combinations, but I think we got enough guys to kind of look around.

“I think it was just a combination change. Obviously, Hardik gives you the option of a bat and a bowler – the all-rounder. Since he wasn’t available, we needed a kind of replacement who could fill in that role for us. It is purely a tactical decision that we went with,” added Mhambrey.

MI are set to play an IPL game for the first time in Guwahati, and one battle which everyone will be keen to see is how RR batters Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Dhruv Jurel fare against ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah. Mhambrey highlighted Bumrah’s unique qualities, especially his ability to outthink batters.

“I think the ability to disguise – purely. (Lungi) Ngidi has been mentioned – he’s very different. The batters are finding it difficult to read it. I think Bumrah has the ability to disguise it, amongst the other things that he presents. So it’s not kind of – you can’t go in a game and say Bumrah is going to do this.

“Classic example was the England game. The first ball he bowled – no one could have expected a slower one. So I think the ability to anticipate what the batters are thinking and to be able to present a kind of an option that, as a batter, you are not expecting. I think that’s his USP – I would say that,” he concluded.

–IANS

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