On Friday (April 4), Mumbai Indians (MI) were up against the hosts Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), where the MI fans were surprised after the skipper Hardik Pandya announced that the former captain Rohit Sharma had to miss the match due to an injury.

In the toss, MI captain Hardik Pandya chose to field first after winning the toss. Pandya then revealed that Rohit Sharma wasn't available for the match due to an injury. The skipper also claimed that the former MI captain was hit on the knee before the match. Although Rohit played MI's first three matches of the season, he played two games as the Impact Sub.

See Also: IPL 2025, LSG vs MI: Here's why Rohit Sharma is not playing today in Lucknow

Why are MI fans unhappy with Rohit Sharma's unavailability?

Meanwhile, MI fans are deeply hurt by Rohit Sharma's unavailability. Some even believe that the injury story may not be the actual reason for Rohit missing the match against LSG. There are some reasons that make the MI fans believe it. Let's check these possible reasons. 

1. The opening batter Rohit Sharma, the third most run-scorer in the IPL and leading run-scorer for MI, is struggling at present. The right-handed batter has started the IPL 2025 with scores of 0, 8, and 13 runs. 
2. Since IPL 2024, there have been several rumours of rifts in the friendship between Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Pandya joined the franchise before the IPL 2024 auction, and he replaced Rohit in the captaincy role. However, it has never been proved despite some media reports. 
3. Despite winning the Player of the Match award in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final, Rohit Sharma was struggling to perform consistently for India. Apart from scoring 78 in the Final, his scores in the other matches of the tournament were 41, 20, 15, and 28 runs, respectively. 
4. After his consistently poor performances in the Australia tour in the 2024-25 summer, where the right-handed batter scored 3, 6, 10, 3, and 9 runs, skipper Rohit dropped himself from the playing XI for the last game of the five-match Test series, where India had to win to only level the Test series. 
5. After the completion of the IPL 2025, India will travel to England for a five-match Test series, which will be a part of the 2025-2027 ICC World Test Championship. As Rohit is under pressure with the bat, he may need a little rest to regain his confidence before freshly beginning the crucial away Test series against England.