Mumbai Indians will be hoping to make a winning to start to their 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. The three-time champions are eager to reclaim the IPL trophy and will play their opening match of the season against Delhi Capitals. Mumbai and Delhi have squared off 22 times in the past with both sides recording 11 wins each.

Ahead of Mumbai’s much-awaited season opener, head coach Mahela Jayawardene spoke to the media at the pre-match press conference. The Sri Lankan legend told reporters that there will be a fresh approach from his boys this season and that he was proud of the character they demonstrated last year. “Every season the players are different, the groups are different and it depends on their mentality. The brand of cricket that we played last year, I am very proud of the guys. We had so many matches that went down to the last ball, we had close games. This is usual in T20 cricket, so experience does play a big part in that and the mindset as well,” Jayawardene said.

He continued: “We will approach this season with a fresh mindset, different tactics even if we are playing the same opponents again. IPL is a tough tournament and we have seen that anything can happen. You gain momentum and you win games, if you lose momentum, you lose as every team is strong. We have got a very strong squad, most of our guys are in very good form, internationally as well. We just need them to go out and enjoy themselves.”

When asked how MI plan on dealing with Delhi after struggling against them last season, Jayawardene opined: “Every game is different and if you see the players have changed (this year) as well. Every franchise has got new players, so tactically the finishers are different, everyone has different roles. We have to plan differently for each and every team and we know how to work on what went wrong last year. That season is done, if you take most of our guys now, they will perform much better this season; they have learnt from their mistakes. We just need to look into our game plan and expect the best from our players. That’s all I want from them, I want them to go out there and give their best.”

Jayawardene then shared some good news by confirming that Hardik Pandya is fit again and raring to get back out in the middle. “If you see Hardik’s posts from the last month and a half on Instagram, you can see he is training very hard. He is 200 percent fit, he is actually too fit to be honest... He has worked on his pace and is raring to go,” he said.

The former Sri Lankan skipper also elaborated on how he feels that it’s a collective responsibility between players and franchises to keep fit with the World Cup on the horizon. “It is on the individual players, how they feel and there is a responsibility on the franchise as well, not only on the Indian players but on the International ones as well. With the World Cup coming up, it is very important to do so. The franchises must ensure that their players are fresh and fit, we do their monitoring and we will keep continuing. We need them to be match fit and gain match experience because you cannot go into the World Cup with less match experience. This is something that we will make sure is maintained,” Jayawardene added.