Mumbai Indians might not have been in such a precarious position as far as IPL playoffs qualification is concerned had former skipper Rohit Sharma recovered earlier from his hamstring injury, rued Harbhajan Singh. Rohit returned to action following an injury-enforced layoff with a strokeful 84 in MI's highest-ever successful run-chase in the IPL in pursuit of 229 when they beat Lucknow Super Giants by six wickets here on Monday.

The former Mumbai Indians' skipper had missed in all five matches since leaving the field after suffering a hamstring injury while batting against Royal Challengers Bengaluru here on April 12. "It's important to be in the middle. You can do only so much sitting in the dugout. But you can make a difference by being in the middle, and Rohit Sharma did exactly that," Harbhajan told JioHotstar. "You needed that foundation to chase down that many runs and he didn't just lay the foundation, but built a couple of floors on it as well, leaving very little for the rest to do. It would have been even better if he had got his hundred, but for the time he was there, he played exceptionally well."