Trying to give new bowlers role clarity: Rohit Sharma

Trying to give new bowlers role clarity: Rohit Sharma
Featured Times
Spread the love

[ad_1]

The Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction always throws a few curveballs at franchises. Not only do they have to take a tough call on who to retain but there are also no guarantees that they will land the players of their choice. Mumbai Indians found themselves in a similar quandary. The five-time champions managed to bring back their batting core—retaining Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard and bidding ₹15.25 crore for Ishan Kishan—but could only hold on to Jasprit Bumrah from the bowling unit.

ALSO READ | ‘Rishabh told me ‘You have only 2 matches to prove yourself” – Ex-DC bowler on how Pant got him his first big IPL break

MI bid aggressively to bring back Bumrah’s opening partner Trent Boult, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar and South African left-arm pacer Marco Jansen but were outbid by Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively. After not being retained, Hardik Pandya was named Gujarat Titans skipper while MI also didn’t bid for Krunal Pandya. While Bumrah will have Jofra Archer for company in the next edition after MI spent ₹8 crore on the England pacer who is recovering from an elbow surgery, the bowling spearhead will enter the 2022 IPL season with a set of brand-new partners.

England left-arm quick and T20 specialist Tymal Mills will be returning to the IPL after 2017 when Bangalore Royal Challengers had paid ?12 crore for him. Jaydev Unadkat, who has had below-par outing in last two seasons while turning out for Rajasthan Royals, too joins Bumrah. MI have added another lefty in Aussie international Daniel Sams, who is a useful lower-order batsman as well. And for genuine pace, this time MI have gone for Aussie quick Riley Meredith.

Mayank Markande, who turned heads in his debut season for MI in 2018, returns after MI missed out on Chahar. Murugan Ashwin, who has been in the IPL for a while now, is the other leg-spinner option. Besides Pollard, Tim David, a T20 specialist, and West Indian Fabian Allen are the all-rounders on their roster. On paper, it’s a relatively inexperienced bowling line-up when it comes to IPL but knowing MI, they always have a trick up their sleeves, capable of getting the best out of the players. Maybe they have another uncapped player ready to be unleashed.

Skipper Rohit Sharma feels that the challenge will be to make the new recruits “understand what is needed of them”. “They know what exactly needs to be done. Our role will be to give them understanding of what they need to do for us. We are trying to give them the role clarity, to what we are expecting from them and what sort of role they need to play over here. Every time you build a new team, this is the challenge that you always face,” said Sharma in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

Coach Mahela Jayawardene feels the team will need to adjust to their strengths as well. “Our planning, approach is not going to change. But what will change is, because of the new bowlers, their strengths are different to the bowlers we had in the last three years. We always work with strengths of the bowlers and see how we can adjust to that. They all have brilliant skill set and with experience that we have in the camp, I’m very confident that we will have a very good season,” said the former Sri Lanka captain. “We managed to keep the core group which is vital for us added some exciting young players and international players as well who we think are crucial for us going forward. The challenge is to get them to identify their roles responsibility within the group,” said Jayawardene.

Sharma felt that because it’s a relatively new team, MI won’t enjoy a home advantage even though the tournament is played in Maharashtra and the pitches at four venues—Wankhede, Brabourne, DY Patil and MCA Stadium—are very similar in nature. “It’s a relatively new team. So, I don’t believe (it will be an) added advantage (playing at home). Lot of the guys have not played in Mumbai before. There is no thing as added advantage. We all are playing in Mumbai after two years. In fact, the other franchises played in Mumbai last year, we didn’t get to play,” he said.

Surya doubtful for opener

Suryakumar Yadav is still undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and will join the team after getting clearance. “Surya is at NCA at the moment, he is recovering well, he will be here soon and I can’t give you his availability now, whether he will be available for first game or not, but we are trying to get him as soon as possible, once we have the clearance from the NCA,” said Sharma. Sharma also revealed that he and Kishan will open the batting got MI.

[ad_2]

Source link

Tags:

97 thoughts on “Trying to give new bowlers role clarity: Rohit Sharma”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *