Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma, who was ruled of India’s tour of Australia due to injury, surprised many by taking to the field in IPL on Tuesday against Sunrisers Hyderabad in his team’s 10-wicket defeat.

After staying on the field throughout Hyderabad’s innings at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Rohit informed that he had recovered from his hamstring injury and was looking to play the remaining matches in this season’s IPL.

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“I was happy to be back; it’s been a while. I was going through some tough times, but [it is] good to back,” Rohit said after the match. “I’m looking forward to playing few more games here and then see what happens. Always nice to be on the ground doing what I love to do.

When commentator Mark Nicholas asked him if his hamstring was “completely fine”, Rohit replied: “Ya, absolutely!”

Earlier, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had informed that Rohit was not picked in any of India’s three squads for the Australia tour due to his injury. Ganguly had further informed that the 33-year-old’s recovery was closely monitored.

However, the cricket fraternity was left baffled when Rohit captained Mumbai Indians in their last league match without any trouble to his injury.

Cricket activist Sanjeev Gupta on Tuesday shot off an email to the Apex Council member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), questioning Ganguly’s “knowledge” of affairs and appealed the council to immediately “get the matter investigated and take stringent action for the said austere lapse”.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday thrashed Mumbai Indians by 10 wickets to take the last play-off berth in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), thanks to a blitzkrieg knock from captain David Warner.

The win at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium helped Hyderabad take their points tally to 14 from as many matches. However, due to a better net run-rate, Warner’s men qualified for the next stages ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

After the outcome of Tuesday’s contest, MI finished the round-robin stage at the first spot with 18 points and is flowed by DC (16 points), SRH (14, net run rate +0.608) and RCB (14, net run rate -0.172).