We missed Rohit in the middle: Wright

After being beaten by Lahore Lions in their first Champions League T20 qualifier, Mumbai Indians head coach John Wright said the defending champions lost because of a poor start with the bat in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who has been ruled out due to injury.

"Well yeah, we missed Rohit. We really needed a good start. We needed pace to get good runs. We got to improve in the area we started slow. We needed more runs on the board," Wright said at the post match press conference after Mumbai Indians lost by six wickets to Pakistan side here last night.

"They (Lahore Lions) did a good job with ball early. We probably ended up with 20 runs less. We needed someone special to contribute in the match," he added.

Praising Umar Akmal for his 18-ball 38 runs knock, Wright said, "He is a dangerous player in this format of the game. We needed to take him early."

The former New Zealand captain ruled out making a lot of changes in the team just on the basis of one game.

"We can't make a huge change just after one or two games. However options are open, we would decide on that," said Wright.

Image: John Wright

Photograph: BCCI