Preparations are in full swing for the highly anticipated El Clasico match of the Indian Premier League between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, with only one day remaining. Both teams are coming into this season of IPL after a below-par outing in the last one where both teams failed to qualify for the playoffs. Rohit Sharma's side had another morally crushing defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore to start the season while MS Dhoni's side bounce back in the game against Lucknow Super Giants with a win after facing defeat in the season opener versus Gujarat Titans. Ahead of the much-awaited clash against Chennai, Mumbai's batting coach Kieron Pollard answered some questions in the press conference.
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Here's what Pollard said -
What do you think about Suryakuamr Yadav's form?
We have no concerns about Surya's form. Again, I believe you guys make more of it than we do sometimes within a team set-up environment. As I said, people have bad days and it's unfortunate. As cricketers all bad days are highlighted and you know, we keep speaking on and on about it rather than trying to look at the positive of what he has done, you know, over the past 18 months in Cricket as an individual. So we do it on a day-by-day basis and the way that he is striking the ball and the way he is training and stuff, we have more confidence.
Do you believe your Indian batters need to fire?
I believe all batters need to fire. I don't think we should single out any one individual. Cricket is played with 11 players and again tournament has just started for us so everyone is looking to start a ton of my high. Yes, we didn't get off to a great start as a pattern, you know. But in the end, I still feel that we managed to a decent total vs Bangalore. So let's see what happens when we play at home in Wankhede.
How do you see the role of an impact player?
To be honest. I haven't thought too much about the impact player rule. I said a lot of thoughts have been flying around, you know about it. But for me, you still have to go out and play cricket in impact or no impact. I think the players who are on the field have to make an impact anyway. So again, it's just another dimension that has been added for entertainment purposes and stuff like that. But, you know, for us is about focusing on what needs to be done by every individual If we have to use the play in different scenarios, we do it to try to do it for our advantage. So that's the best way we think that we can use it at this point in time. So what we have, you know, have too much thought into it because that takes away what you're trying to do with just prepare for the entire game rather than some particular area, which is Impact Player.