AHMEDABAD: India and Mumbai Indians' captain Rohit Sharma was forced to miss the pre-IPL captains' meeting and photoshoot on Thursday as he was "unwell," TOI has learnt.
"He was unwell and thus could not travel to Ahmedabad for the pre-IPL captains' meeting and photoshoot. He is, however, likely to be available for MI's opening game in IPL-2023 against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 2,” a reliable source told TOI.
Rohit had addressed MI's pre-tournament media interaction on Wednesday in Mumbai.
On the eve of the opening match of the 2023 season of the IPL, all the franchise captains gathered at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium and held a special photoshoot with the trophy. However, Rohit's absence caught the attention of fans.
All the other nine teams were represented in the photoshoot with MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Hardik Pandya (Gujarat Titans), Shikhar Dhawan (Punjab Kings), Nitish Rana (Kolkata Knight Riders), KL Rahul (Lucknow Super Giants), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Faf Du Plessis (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Sanju Samson (Rajasthan Royals) and David Warner (Delhi Capitals) being in the frame.
The 2023 IPL will kickstart with a lavish opening ceremony on Friday (March 31), before a blockbuster clash between defending champions Gujarat Titans and MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Meanwhile, the IPL captain's meeting on Thursday took stock of the rules and regulations of the T20 league. On the agenda (TOI has a copy) of the IPL captains' meet was a discussion on the saliva ban, in-match penalty in the 20th over (due to slow over-rate), umpires' soft signal, concussion replacement, Super Over, DRS reviews and countdown, role of the fourth umpire, waist-high full tosses and wides, pace of play, code of conduct, notification for time-out, innings timer and the new Impact Player rule. Significantly, there was no discussion on workload management of Team India players, which has been a hot topic going into IPL 2023.
