India captain and Mumbai Indians opener Rohit Sharma was forced to play as an ‘Impact sub’ in Friday’s IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders due to a "mild back stiffness", revealed leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.
Playing as an ‘Impact sub’, Rohit scored just 11 runs off 12 balls during Mumbai Indians’ 24-run defeat to KKR. The result has virtually put the five-time champions out of the reckoning for a play-offs berth.
"He just had a mild back stiffness, so it was just a precautionary thing," Chawla told the media after the match at the Wankhede stadium, in Mumbai.
Mumbai's defeat was their eighth in 11 matches, essentially shutting the doors on the Hardik Pandya-led side and Chawla conceded that it is only "pride" that the team is left with to play for.
"For the pride and the reputation, because sometimes when you enter on the field you don't think whether you are going to qualify or you are not going to qualify.
"You have to play for your name and that's what we are playing for," he added.
Chawla attributed MI's inability to attain momentum at any stage in this IPL as the reason behind their poor performance.
“You must have often heard that T20 is all about momentum and (it’s) just that we didn't get that momentum going this season and it can happen to any team.
"It's not like it's happening to us for the first time, or any other team for the second time. It can happen to anyone and it's just that that momentum was not our way."
The 35-year-old Chawla became IPL's second leading wicket-taker when he went past Dwayne Bravo on Friday to take 184 wickets.
"It has been a beautiful journey because IPL started 17 years back and at that time nobody gave that much preference to the spinners, but now, if you see, that in top few wicket-takers in India, especially all the spinners, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, Yuzhi (Yuzvendra Chahal), myself (are there), so it's a good feeling."
Chawla also praised Manish Pandey for delivering in a pressure situation while playing his first game this season.
Pandey (42) added 83 runs for the sixth wicket with Venkatesh Iyer (70) as KKR posted 169 all out in 19.5 overs.
“It was a good partnership and credit has to go to them because they batted beautifully. Well, T20 is something in which experience plays a big role, (which is) what we saw today.
“When Manish walked in, maybe if somebody walks in who must have played few games, he would have panicked that runs are not coming.
“But he read the situation and the way he handled the situation -- because if you see in starting he was hardly going at a-run-a-ball. But later on he knew that he has to stand there with Venky."
