Mumbai Indians will be eager to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore and pick up their first win in the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday. The three-time champions have travelled to the Garden City and will face Bangalore at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. Both teams lost their season openers and will want their first points of the season at the earliest. The previous game against Delhi Capitals saw MI fall 37 runs short in a 200-plus run chase, but there were some encouraging cameos from Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and Yuvraj Singh, who scored a fifty on his MI debut.

In the end, Mumbai’s inability to build partnerships as they would have liked gave Delhi the advantage and it’s an area that the team is looking to address. “Since I've been here, we've had a couple of discussions on how we are going to go about (closing the innings). The execution is always key no matter what plans you have. But saying that we've got a couple of the best. (Jasprit) Bumrah himself, especially, is one of the best bowlers in the world. I've seen him and I've played against him. I'm sure he's going to come back strong. You know he isn’t one of the best death bowlers in the world for no reason and a couple of other boys around. Guys like Hardik (Pandya), Mitch McClenaghan – all top bowlers. I know that they are going to bounce back,” Quinton de Kock, who scored a fluent 27 from 16 balls against Delhi, told reporters at the pre-match press conference.

The South African wicketkeeper will get a chance to get one over Bangalore, who he represented last season. However, de Kock insisted that getting an opportunity to play in the IPL offers enough motivation to perform well. “I think playing in this tournament, I am very determined to score a lot of runs whether it is against RCB, Delhi, Sunrisers wherever (doesn’t matter). I am always determined to contribute towards the team and just get the team over to the winning side, that is what my goal is and what I am going to try and do,” he said.

When asked if playing against the Bengaluru bowlers he trained with last season gives him an advantage, de Kock said: “It’s one thing knowing the bowlers but getting out there and playing in the competitive surroundings is going to be a different ball-game. Going out there to the wicket, going against Umesh (Yadav) and all the boys; when they bowl well, they are very hard to get going against, they have got some good bowlers in their team. So, we must go out there and see what happens, hopefully we come out on top.”

The powerful left-hander then admitted that getting his countryman AB de Villiers’ wicket early will be crucial to our chances. “Well obviously, ABD being AB, he is a big wicket for them. I think if we get him out pretty early, we have a good chance of doing well in the game. We have spoken about how to try and get him out, hopefully that comes off or otherwise we hope he makes a mistake,” de Kock said.

He also spoke about how the IPL will be good for player preparation leading into the World Cup in May. “I think, guys that are not from the subcontinent, we come here to learn, we try and learn as much as possible and play against spin. Exactly the same when the subcontinent guys come to our countries then they have to play fast bowling. Obviously, it’s a learning curve for us, you know especially India has got some really good up and coming spinners. They are very wily, they know what to do with the ball, they know how to bowl, their control is very good, so obviously it is just trying to learn and play against them. Hopefully we take that into the world cup and come out on top,” de Kock opined.

There were also updates stating that Jasprit Bumrah had warmed up with the boys in practice and Lasith Malinga is scheduled to reach Bengaluru and join the squad.