IPL 2026: Why is Rohit Sharma not playing today’s match against Punjab Kings?

Star batter Rohit Sharma is not available for Mumbai Indians’ (MI) fifth fixture of the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026) against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Thursday, April 16 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Rohit injured his hamstring during their last fixture against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the same venue.

As a result, he retired hurt during the sixth over of MI’s run chase after scoring 19* (13). Apart from him, Mitchell Santner is also unavailable for the game due to illness. Captain Hardik Pandya informed about players' unavailability for the fixture, revealing that Rohit might take a couple of games to regain fitness.

“Yeah, Rohit is out from the last game. He's gonna take a couple of games for him to see how exactly where he is. And Mitchell is unwell as well. So Mitchell Santner is also not available. So, yeah, we got a couple of changes,” said Pandya at the toss.

Rohit’s unavailability comes as a major blow to MI as he was the highest run scorer of the team in the season so far with 137 runs from four innings at an average of 45.66 and a strike rate of 165.06 with one fifty to his name. In his place, MI have brought in Quinton de Kock to open the innings alongside his compatriot Ryan Rickelton. On the other hand, they also handed a debut to Mayank Rawat.

MI are reeling at second last spot (ninth) on the points table with just one win from four matches, having two points to their name. On the other hand, Punjab are the only unbeaten team of the season so far, occupying third spot on the points table with seven points.

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Mayank Rawat, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah

Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: AM Ghazanfar, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer(c), Cooper Connolly, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur