With Ponting at helm, Mumbai have an all-star support staff

Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting and captain Rohit Sharma at a presser in Mumbai.

Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jonty Rhodes, Shane Bond, John Wright, Robin Singh, Kiran More, Paras Mhambrey and Rahul Sanghvi. The Mumbai Indians’ support-staff bench easily outweighs the team’s dug-out, considering it has 1557 ODIs sitting on it. With these key decision makers at his disposal, captain Rohit Sharma will consider himself the luckliest of all leaders in the eighth season of the Indian Premier League.

While MI has always boasted of heavyweights in their coaching department, this time around — with the addition of Ponting as head coach and Bond as chief bowling coach (Tendulkar remains the team’s icon) — the franchise has just broken its weighing scale with pure muscle.

So in a set-up such as this, what exactly is the chief coach and the captain’s role? Ponting believes his main aim is get his troops in order and make his dressing room conducive for his captain while Sharma is a firm believer in getting his team’s balance right. They, in a combined press conference, addressed the media in Mumbai on Sunday just before flying off to Kolkata to meet the defending champions for this tournament’s opening game.

“I have got to get players organised and make sure that their skills are good and more importantly they are in a positive frame of mind,” said Ponting. “We have a great challenge ahead. We are heading to play Kolkata, the reigning champions for the first game of the IPL on their home ground. So far this week’s been great. Our preparation has been great. I really love the attitude of our players so I am excited about being the head coach of Mumbai Indians.”

Fans of each other

While Ponting is a fan of his players’ attitudes, Sharma is a fan of the Tasmanian’s work ethic. Mainly because in 2013, the year they won the trophy for the only time and in the Aussie’s debut IPL season, Ponting decided to drop himself from the playing eleven half way through the tournament to get the balance of the team right. “You see such things very rarely. It does not happen every day,” said Sharma of Ponting’s brave decision from two years ago. “He took up a mentoring role and got the team together. It turned out to be a tremendous phase for us. We went on to win the championship. We expect the same this year.”

But does he believe that Ponting will easily take to his new job of coaching, a different animal to knowing how to play the game? Sharma answered in the affirmative. “He understands the game really well. His thinking of the game is really broad. He was the leader of the Australian side and he won them two World Cups. He knows how to win big tournaments,” the captain said. “He brings a lot to the table. So I am sure this year is also going to be another exciting year for us.”

Does Ponting, though, feel more pressure due to the bloated size of his squad — 26 players? “We are no different from most of the IPL teams they have got as many players as well,” he replied. “Managing that many players in training becomes difficult. But the challenge is in focussing on the guys who needs the most work, most training, and at the same time make sure you have got to give attention to the younger guys as well. That is the challenge for me.”

Then he thought for a moment, remembered the size of his support staff and said: “The captain has nothing to worry about. It is what the coaching group has to worry about and am sure we will handle that pretty well.”

Source:: Indian Express