Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya (left) and head coach Mahela Jayawardene at the pre-season press conference |
Mahela Jayawardene has been a big part of Mumbai Indians’ IPL legacy of winning five titles being the head coach in three of those title wins in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
The former Sri Lanka captain has been at the helm of affairs since 2017 and marshalled the team comprising superstars for the last eight seasons and is now looking at breaking the team’s title winning drought.
After the appointment of Hardik Pandya as the MI skipper last season replacing the legendary hometown boy Rohit Sharma, there was some discussion about the communication or lack of it during that period and Jayawardene addressed that during the pre-season presser.
“Communication was outside my bubble. Communication within the bubble was quite good. Even though I was not the head coach, I was part of the main set up. So I knew what was happening. It was important for us to get together. We pride on our core group and it has been the reason for our success for many years. These guys have brilliantly worked hard and it’s not an easy thing to win an IPL trophy. We all know that and Mumbai has been successfull and each year the challenge is for us to set ourselves up for that. With the core group we have, we added more experience into that group now. That was something planned, what we wanted to achieve. We have seven guys in our group who have won IPL trophies with different franchises. As a coach, I’m trying to get that structure in place and get the best out of them with the last few years with the rule changes and all, the dynamics have changed,” he added.
Jayawardene also said not having Bumrah in the initial few games is a setback but they have to find ways to deal with it.
“Jasprit (Bumrah) is at the NCA and we have to wait and see what is his progress. At the moment, everything is going well. On a day to day basis everything is going well and he is in good spirits. Hopefully he can join the team sooner. Obviously not having him it is a challenge. One of the best bowlers in the world and he has been fantastic for us for many years. We have to find a way and it is an opportunity for someone else also to step up and show what we are capable of. We are trying different things and we’ll see what works,” he added.
