Four games. One win, Three defeats… But it’s far from over. 

Our Boys in Blue and Gold are known to rise from the ashes and have done so time and again in the past with a proven track record. 💪

In the upcoming clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the team will look to overcome the narrow 12-run defeat versus the Lucknow Super Giants and get back to winning ways.

Ahead of the much-anticipated fixture, our Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene addressed the media amidst the hot topic of Jasprit Bumrah entering the MI camp.

“Yes, he [Bumrah] has trained today, so he should be available. He had his sessions with NCA to finalise that and has been handed over to our physios. He's bowling today, so all good,” Mahela said.

Furthermore, MJ also gave an update on Rohit Sharma’s injury concerns while backing him to come good in the upcoming matches.

“RO looks good. He batted today as well. It was just an unfortunate impact on his leg while batting, so it's uncomfortable,” he said.

“He's batting well in the nets. I remember his ICC Champions Trophy-winning knock [in the Final], so we have to back the experienced guys to come to the party. And we always, as Mumbai, back the core group to deliver for us. So we're gonna do that,” Mahela added.

Acknowledging the concerns around the team's performance in the powerplay phase, MJ agreed that the statistics aren’t the best and the side is continuously working to improve the same.

“Yes, it’s absolutely right. We looked at those numbers as well. So as any team, when you start the season with a new group of players, we will come across these issues.

“That's something that we'll have to address. We need to take a bit more control of the powerplays. It’s something that we're going to plan and see whether we can improve on that,” he opined.

Meanwhile, Mahela cleared the air around the exact batting order in the team, suggesting that the players are flexible to contribute to the best of their ability wherever needed.

“Well, obviously, with the injuries that we had and the unavailability of players up front in the season, we had to stick to different combinations and even Tilak batted in a couple of positions.

“For Naman, he’s one of the versatile players that we have in our team. You need those kinds of guys who can adapt to any condition and bat at different places. If we have injuries, we have to do different things. So he's doing that for us. I want to be a bit more flexible with our batting order given the talent and the skill that we have.”.

“As long as we can have productivity from the guys in different positions, it's going to give us a better advantage going forward and that's the main reason for those guys moving up and down. Hopefully, we can settle into a group that will also give us a bit more stability,” Mahela said.

On being asked if there was a collective conversation in the dressing room about Tilak’s retired out call during #LSGvMI, our Head Coach said that the game situation led to the tough decision.

“In the modern day, it is much more tactical & we keep changing the batting lineups to match up certain goals. As a batter, I've had times where you go to bat and then you struggle to get through.”

“He battled very well for us in the last three games. He built those partnerships and got us to situations that we needed to. So that's what his role with that experience is… I value what he brings to the game. He was trying and he wasn't able to get going,” he said.

“It was my decision to throw someone else to get those two hits and Mitch Santner has done that in the last few games. He was in decent form. I needed two hits to get to that 15 runs or 20 runs which we needed in that last over. So it was tactical and had nothing to do with Tilak.

“I'm sure he'll walk in here tomorrow and he'll win the match for us. That's who Tilak is for us and there's a lot of value for him in our camp,” Mahela said, praising the southpaw.

Speaking about the team's shortcomings against GT and CSK on black soil pitches; MJ admitted the challenges and revealed his thoughts on the way forward.

“I think all teams struggle to get early wickets on those kinds of pitches. We tried a few different things initially with new personnel. In Chennai, we didn't have Hardik in the line-up, so we were just adjusting combinations. Agreed that we needed to take control, which we had in only one of our games [vs KKR].

“If we can try to be aggressive and execute… That's something that we're looking forward to and keep building on. I think against GT, we were not in the game. All the other games, we were right in it. Even in LSG, we fought well. We were in a situation where we could have won and we just didn't have that clear execution.

“So, as long as we're playing good cricket and are ruthless in areas where we need to be ruthless as a unit… That's something that I'm working on to make sure that the execution is there,” Mahela finished.

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Our Head Coach’s honest assessment ahead of the #MIvRCB encounter is absolutely 🔛 point.

The Boys have taken the learnings and worked hard on the basics… It’s execution time at our Fortress tomorrow evening!

Paltan, we are as pumped up as you are and can’t wait for the action to unfold 🔜.