Kamal Ghorui
MUMBAI: India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav and his wife Devisha Shetty were blessed with a baby girl on Thursday. It’s not confirmed when or whether SKY, currently enjoying a personal moment, would join the Mumbai Indians (MI) team in Raipur for their game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Sunday. Placed ninth on the table with just six points after 10 matches, the Mumbai Indians only have an outside chance of making it to the playoffs.
While his personal form has been far from satisfactory, 2026 has been lucky for the 35-year-old Mumbaikar as he captained India to the 2026 T20 World Cup title, when the men in Blue thrashed New Zealand by 96 runs in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on March 8, almost a couple of months back. SKY would hope to bounce back to form in IPL 2026, in which he has managed to score just 195 runs in 10 matches at 19.50 so far, with a strike rate of 145.52. With seven defeats and three victories, Mumbai Indians are languishing at the ninth spot in the points table and need to win each of their remaining matches to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.It also remains to be seen how Pandya, who has missed two games due to health-related issues in this edition of IPL, pulls up for the must-win clash against defending champions RCB at Raipur’s Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium.While Suryakumar Yadav had stepped in to lead in Pandya’s absence, opener Ryan Rickelton said after the game against LSG that he did not have much information on the matter.“I don’t know when he’s expected to be back. I only found out this afternoon that he had back spasms. I’m unaware of the extent of it or how bad it is or what he’s feeling. But I’m sure he’ll be back with the group as we head to Raipur this week,” Rickelton said.
