Mumbai, Apr 11 (IANS): Mumbai Indians (MI) have signed Saurashtra wicketkeeper-batter Harvik Desai as a replacement for Vishnu Vinod, who is ruled out for the rest of the season due to an injury.

"Wicket-keeper batter Vishnu Vinod has been ruled out of the remainder of the IPL 2024 owing to an injury to his forearm. The Mumbai Indians have signed Saurashtra wicket-keeper batter Harvik Desai as a replacement," an IPL statement read.

Harvik, 24, has a century in all three formats of the game in the Indian domestic circuit, where he represents Saurashtra as a top-order batter-cum-wicketkeeper. He was a member of the India U19 team that won the Men’s U19 World Cup in New Zealand in 2018, alongside the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Riyan Parag, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Mavi.

In 27 T20s, Harvik, hailing from Bhavnagar, has made 691 runs in 27 matches at an average of 30.04 and strike-rate of 134.17, including a century and five fifties. He has been a member of Saurashtra winning two Ranji Trophy titles in 2019/20 and 2022/23 respectively under Jaydev Unadkat’s leadership, while gaining wealth of knowledge through stalwarts like Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson.

Desai was also a part of the Saurashtra team winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy title in 2022/23 season. Mumbai Indians, led by Hardik Pandya, will be facing Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday evening, followed by hosting Chennai Super Kings in a highly-anticipated clash on Sunday evening.