Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians captain says he has to do “a lot of maintenance work” to ensure he remains in peak physical condition ever since the hamstring injury he suffered during the last IPL.
The stylish right-handed batsman missed some part of the IPL last year and the initial portion of the Australia tour, including the white-ball leg, due to the injury.
Rohit Sharma: There’s A Lot Of Maintenance Work To Do To Maintain Body
“Maintaining what I have built up in the last three or four months. Obviously, I was injured during the last IPL. So there’s a lot of maintenance work that I have to keep doing just to maintain my lower body, hamstring and stuff like that,” Sharma said in ‘Captain’s Corner’, a video posted by Mumbai Indians on its Twitter handle on Tuesday.
Speaking about the hard work put in by the players who took part in a fitness session after MI’s loss in the tournament opener of this edition of the league, Rohit Sharma said they take a lot of pride in that.
“Exactly that is something we take a lot of pride in. We want to keep putting that effort whether we win the game, lose the game, it doesn’t matter. For us, what matters is the preparation. It is great to see some of the fast bowlers who played in yesterday’s game come out and do the fitness drills, which is always nice. That’s what MI always takes pride in. Putting that extra yard in, that’s why we get the results in our favour,” he said ahead of the five-time champion’s next game against KKR.
Mumbai made a positive start and was in a position to reach a score in excess of 180. However, Harshal Patel’s five-wicket haul halted their momentum as they crumbled to a score of 159/9. They also had an average outing with the ball, with leg-spinner Rahul Chahar having another poor game. Jasprit Bumrah and debutant Marco Jansen helped pull things back for them and took the game deep. However, AB De Villiers did enough to ensure victory for RCB.
Rohit Sharma: MI Need To Strategize And Maintain Standards
He harped on team bonding and said Mumbai Indians do most things with a group of players.
“A lot of players getting involved in whatever it is. Whether it is going outside and playing a game, whether it is doing fitness, whether it is attending meetings. We try and do that with a group of players. There is a lot of interaction especially about the game that is played or the game that is about to come. Just to keep that bonding going. Every year we see new faces and staff coming into the squad, we want everyone to get adjusted to MI culture. It is important to have that togetherness. We have maintained that and we will continue to do that,” he added.
Asked what happens during the day and at training sessions, the MI captain said they would look to catch up and strategize as there is no home advantage this year.
“We just wanted to catch up, no home advantage this year. We are playing in different venues. We need to strategise, what sort of game plan to have. We all know as individuals, what is expected. Through the course of our training session today we will have chat individually. We will see what one needs to get out of these practice sessions. We have set some standards in this tournament. I would like us to continue to do that. And how we lead up to those games will be very critical,” he added.
Rohit, who has played 200 IPL games, said, “That’s a good milestone. I hope I can double that up by playing another 200 (laughs).”
Defending champions MI lost the season opener to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai on April 9 and will take on KKR later on Tuesday.
Chris Lynn missed out on fifty in the opener, but he showcased he can replace Quinton de Kock in the line-up till the South Africa opener is ready to return. Rahul Chahar is the key spin bowler and on slow surfaces, he will be a primary asset for MI but may be replaced by Piyush Chawla. Nathan Coulter-Nile is one of the trusted customers in IPL, and he is likely to replace Marco Jansen.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 160 for 8 (de Villiers 48, Maxwell 39, Bumrah 2-26, Jansen 2-28) beat Mumbai Indians 159 for 9 (Lynn 49, Yadav 31, Patel 5-27) by two wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Harbhajan Singh, and Prasidh Krishna.
Mumbai Indians Probable XI: Chris Lynn/ Quinton De Kock, Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen/ Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar/ Piyush Chawla, Trent Boult, and Jasprit Bumrah.