IPL 2018: Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma emphasises on team-bonding ahead of mounting title defence

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has emphasised on the importance of team bonding as they head into the new season looking to defend their title. “The key firstly is to get the players around, get to know each one of them; that is the challenge of IPL because all the players come from different countries, states. So the first and foremost challenge for us is to get all the players together, have some activity around the team,” Rohit said in the pre-series conference. “It’s very important, it’s a two-month tournament and it is very crucial that we gel as a team and it has to begin much before the IPL starts, and we did that.” [caption id=“attachment_4283009” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rohit Sharma and the Pandya brothers, Hardik and Krunal, are part of what is considered to be the core of Mumbai Indians. AFP[/caption] All the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) teams underwent major revamp this season as the fourth mega-auctions threw all, barring a few retained players, into the mix. Each franchise was allowed to retain a maximum of five players through a combination of retention and Right-to-Match cards. Mumbai, as has been the case in past, managed to retain their core, roping in Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, and Kieron Pollard. The franchise recruited a cluster of young talents and with just seven players in the team sheet from the last season, the challenge is to get them working as a cohesive unit. “We always try and focus on that particular aspect where we bring in the players together just to know each one of them because it is very important to understand throughout the tournament what one likes to do on the field, off the field,” Rohit explained. It’s a crucial process that Mumbai have been following over the years. “There has always been a culture where they always gather and do activities prior so nothing has changed from that,” head coach Mahela Jayawardena said. “This year what we did is, we have a new facility in the Reliance park, the new ground, so we took the boys there for a week, all the younger and new guys who came in. All the international guys had a hectic schedule so they joined us later on. The young boys managed to get together and do some great stuff while practising. Now once the international boys have walked in, we will have some more activities around that, getting to know each other. That has been really important for us. Like Rohit said, to understand each other, what ticks them, and what doesn’t. So we’ve invested a lot of time and effort for that and that’s very important, especially when we have a group together for eight weeks and we will continue to do that through the season as well. Whenever we get breaks, we will have activities so that everyone has fun as part of a team and family and push each other in the right direction.” With players assembled just days before the start of the league, the team bonding activity will be a continuous process throughout the season and Rohit will have to play an important role. This is where his experience will come in handy. In the last five years, he has become a different beast in white-ball cricket, as a batsman, but simultaneously, he has grown into an astute leader as well. He led Mumbai Indians to their first title in the 2013 season after being promoted as captain owing to Ricky Ponting’s poor form. He made it a double the same year clinching the Champions League T20 title. In the next four years, he bagged two IPL titles. In the process, he was given the honours of leading the national team in absence of Virat Kohli in limited-overs cricket. With Mumbai looking to become just the second team to defend their title, Rohit is not overburdened by pressure. “Pressure is always there when you take the field, whether it’s an IPL franchise or playing for the national team,” Rohit said. “For me as an individual what is important is an opportunity to play cricket, whether I play for my club, or national team, I have to go and perform, I have to play well, so the pressure of performing is always going to be there. How you deal with it is important. IPL cricket is different in terms of adapting to different conditions all the time, different players come into your team, for me as a leader to handle those guys and then getting the right players on the park is the challenge. As an individual, I won’t think of it as pressure, it’s a responsibility that lies in front of you.” Jayawardena is impressed with the way Rohit has handled himself as a leader and feels that Rohit demands that respect as a captain and earns it as well. “He has guided a lot of younger guys through the system and they have matured very quickly,” Jayawardene said. “It shows the faith Rohit has put in the younger group, that’s a quality of a good leader and he is getting the best out of everyone. That’s probably why he is so successful captain in a franchise because people gather around him and contribute towards one goal. And he has handled it quite well, on and off the field. He is a simple guy, doesn’t get too overawed by the whole scenario, he just gets along with it and for him, the most important thing is to go out, perform and enjoy his cricket as well as the team’s performance.” Mumbai have developed balanced teams over the years, but the oppositions could find a slight chink in their armour this time around — their inexperienced spin department. They have uncapped Rahul Chahar and Anukul Roy, Sri Lanka off-spinner Akila Dananjaya who has played just 35 international matches and all-rounder Krunal Pandya in their ranks. Krunal, in just two seasons, has become a vital cog in the MI system,  and this season too his role becomes all the more crucial. The Wankhede tracks get slower as the tournament progresses and spinners are destined to play a key role. However, despite the inexperience in the spin department, both Rohit and Jayawardena are confident that they will deliver the goods. “Not just Krunal, there are few younger guys who are looking promising, people have not seen them before and whatever I’ve seen of them in the last three-four days, I am very impressed,” Rohit said. ““So I think we’ve got some real talent in the house, and hopefully they can come out and just play the cricket they’ve played for their clubs or states or wherever it is,” he added. “Usually, MI hasn’t invested in an overseas spinner, so we’ve invested in that (Dananjaya), reducing an overseas fast bowler purely because of the opposition we have to face away from home and slowness of certain wickets. So we are prepared,” Jayawardena said. “The ones we’ve got, I am very confident that they will deliver. I wouldn’t call inexperience, I think IPL is all about freshness, new ideas and people coming in with new things. That’s what we are hoping for and we are fully prepared for that.” While Rohit kept his cards close to his chest on his batting position, he did give a hint that the domestic players, some of them who have been on the fringes earlier, might get a chance this season. “A lot of domestic players are in good form. The challenge for any IPL captain is to get those domestic players in the squad and make use of them,” the 30-year-old explained. “All our domestic players in the squad are in good form so we have a little bit of a headache to get the right combination but yes, we have to look at all these guys specially Siddhesh Lad, he’s been in the squad for more than three years now and somewhere down the line we also feel that he needs an opportunity but again, all will depend on the right balance and combination we have and the opposition we are facing and the conditions will also matter,” the skipper said.