Real reason why Saurabh Tiwary played ahead of Ishan Kishan for MI revealed

Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings battled in the IPL 2020 season opener in Abu Dhabi on Saturday as Indian cricket finally returned to everyone’s television screens. There were a lot of surprising developments in the first match of IPL 2020. 

First of all, Chennai Super Kings benched Imran Tahir and included two overseas fast bowlers Lungi Ngidi and Sam Curran in the playing XI. Also, MS Dhoni came out to bat after Curran and Ravindra Jadeja. On the other side, Mumbai Indians included Saurabh Tiwary and James Pattinson in the playing XI. 

The fans were shocked to see Ishan Kishan absent in the playing XI of Mumbai. He is one of the highest-paid uncapped players in IPL 2020. Still, he did not get a place in the team. Also, the team’s captain Rohit Sharma did not state anything about his absence at the toss. It is noteworthy that Sharma spoke about Nathan Coulter Nile and revealed that the Aussie had picked up a niggle. 

To make things clear for the fans, the commentators said on air that Ishan Kishan was not playing because of a right shoulder niggle. Twitter users also pointed out this fact on the microblogging platform. Nevertheless, Saurabh did a fantastic job in Kishan’s absence. 

The left-handed batsman was the top-scorer for Mumbai Indians, scoring 42 runs after coming out to bat at number four. He stabilized the innings after the two openers departed. Unfortunately, the ending to Mumbai’s inning was not so good as Mumbai eventually lost the match by five wickets. 

Nevertheless, there is no official update on Ishan Kishan’s availability for the upcoming matches. Since it was a niggle, he could return soon also, or else Mumbai may continue with Saurabh Tiwary now because of his brilliant performance at number 4 against a team like CSK.