New look mi train to retain IPL

On a humid Sunday afternoon, as the sun was setting and the floodlights were leisurely coming to life, the ball boys were done with their respective warm-ups. All around the field of Wankhede, numerous artisans were doing their jobs on different aspects to ready the stadium for a crowd that comes in numbers to support Mumbai Indians.

Notwithstanding the hot and humid conditions, head coach, Mahela Jayawar- dene was the first one to walk down from the dressing room and his compatriot Latish Malinga followed him. Both of them have bittersweet memories at Wankhede including the 2011 World Cup final that the Sri Lanka lost to India. A bunch of young players in the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Anukul Roy, and Mustafizur Rahman joined them to train.

Unusually, the pacers were put out to bat first. Bumrah made the most of it by smacking the ball around the park with bowling coach Shane Bond watching on from the side of the nets. Even Rahman was enjoying his time with the bat in the nets.

From the two wicketkeepers in the squad, Aditya Tare shook of the rust from his finger injury to train with Kiran More. He looked sharp with the catches and high on energy. After every one-handed catch that he took, there was a celebratory ‘yes!’ to get up for another. Tare’s counterpart Ishan Kishan is likely to join the camp for training soon.

The second batch consisted of the stars from last season. Skipper Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Krunal Pandya came on the pitch to train with the rest. Local lads Suryakumar Yadav and Mumbai’s domestic top scorer Siddesh Lad arrived with them.

Rohit was in his ever-chirpy mood and continued his net practice with huge sixes. The Pandya brothers took the ball in the other nets with consultation from Malinga and Bond. Hardik sent down a few fine yorkers as well to remind the duo of their prime days.

The local duo of Lad and Suryakumar had long chats with Jayawardene. Surya took lessons from the master himself to perfect the art of straight drive and cover drive. He was in bright form in the same stadium a couple of weeks ago when he lifted the Mumbai T20 League Trophy with a Herculean knock of 90 runs from 42 balls. Some lessons from Mahela can definitely shape the all-rounder.

A few foreign players are yet to arrive for the training with a practice match scheduled in a couple of days. Big West Indian hitters, Kieron Pollard and Evin Lewis are amongst the ones who are yet to arrive.The three-time champions have not splurged money just to get the top players. However, the team’s core hs been kept intact. Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard have spent long tenures with the franchise and now the duo of Pandya brothers- Hardik and Krunal have joined the party as the new fan favourites. 

Mustafizur Rahman, who was the second highest wickettaker in the Nihadas Trophy, along with yorker specialist Jasprit Bumrah account for strong opening and death overs bowlers for MI. Bumrah has benefited a lot with his partnership with Malinga last season and its effect has been seen in his national team performaces. Rahman could also shape out to improve with the partnership with the Sri Lankan slinger, who is now MI’s bowling mentor.