Captain Hardik Pandya, meanwhile, backs experienced Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Reece Topley to do well at Wankhede
Vishal Dikshit19-Mar-20255:07
Can Hardik-led Mumbai Indians bounce back this season?
A last-place finish in IPL 2024. A new captain who was booed by the home crowd at Wankhede a few times. A new season without Jasprit Bumrah for the first few games. And without their captain Hardik Pandya for their first game, against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) no less.Five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have their plate full of challenges that will be thrown at them in IPL 2025 as they try and win their first title since 2020. To turn their fortunes around, they are banking on the core group they retained before the auction in November last year; the return of Trent Boult, who was the Player of the Match in the IPL 2020 final; and the seniors getting back with Mahela Jayawardene, who returns as head coach after having won the title with them three times during his first tenure with them from 2017 to 2022.”Last season threw us some challenges, but it’s been a big auction, and a lot of changes have happened,” Jayawardene said at MI’s pre-season press conference in Mumbai. “With that, we got a fresh canvas to start and paint our destiny. We have the core group with us who’s got the experience, who knows what the culture is, how we need to play, and how we need to win.Related
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“And with the new group of guys includes some of the old faces coming back – like Trent, who was a big part in our success in 2020. So, for us, it’s about the putting this parcel together, making sure that we gel well as a group, understanding our strengths, and have a good start.”Even though the same core was there last year too, there were reports and rumours of rifts inside the dressing room as the team started with three straight losses. Amid that, Hardik faced a lot of backlash from the local fans for taking over from their five-time champion Rohit Sharma, who has since gone on to lead India to the T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy titles. Even though Mark Boucher was MI’s coach last season, Jayawardene was asked what he thought of the “miscommunications” within the team last year.”The communication within the bubble was quite good,” Jayawardene, who was MI’s global head of performance across T20 leagues till 2024, said. “And even though I wasn’t 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; that’s been our success for many years, and these guys have done brilliantly, [and] worked hard. It’s not an easy thing to win an IPL trophy. And Mumbai has been successful delivering that, and each year, the challenge is for us to set ourselves up for that.”With the core group, the experience that we have, we have added more experience into that this year. That was something planned that we wanted to achieve. We have seven guys in our main squad who’ve won IPL trophies with different franchises as well. As a coach, I’m trying to get that structure in place, get the best out of them, and then add the other individuals that we need to add to be a bit more different.Hardik Pandya will lead a side that will feature two India captains in Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav•AFP/Getty Images
“I realise that the last few years with the rule changes and all that, the dynamics have changed, and that’s something we need to be mindful of, but at the same time, play the brand of cricket that we want to play as a group, and dominate in there.”Hardik himself was a crucial part of the India sides that lifted the two ICC titles since the last IPL, even being the vice-captain during the 2024 T20 World Cup. He will now lead an MI side that features two India captains – Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav – and India’s Test vice-captain Bumrah, whenever he is fit. Hardik said the last 12 months had been “very entertaining” for him, and that he was “lucky” to have three captains in his side who will “always be there” for him.”I am very confident. I was confident back then. I was confident when I was playing the Champions Trophy, and I am confident now,” Hardik said. “So if you ask me about my confidence, it’s always going to be high.”My life has been quite up and down, but I think that has been the learning which I really enjoyed. It has just not taught me about the sport, [but] it has taught me about life as well that how life would be over the years. This year, it’s a fresh year. A lot of things have changed, a lot of things are added. There will be always passion. There will always be grit, there will be always challenges which I love, and for me, the crucial part would be to make sure if the challenges are thrown at my boys, how I can help them fight their way out.”Among the biggest challenges coming his way is the absence of Bumrah, who has been out with a back injury since January. He is expected to join the MI squad some time in April, after he recovers at the Centre of Excellence (earlier called NCA) in Bengaluru under the watch of BCCI’s medical team. Bumrah was one of the few bright spots for MI in an otherwise forgettable 2024 season, when he picked 20 wickets – third-most overall – with a stunning economy rate of 6.48 in the most high-scoring IPL that saw eight 250-plus totals.MI will hope their pace attack of Boult, Deepak Chahar, Corbin Bosch and Reece Topley steps up, especially in the death overs, a phase in which Bumrah is all but irreplaceable.Hardik Pandya and Mahela Jayawardene share a laugh at the pre-season press meet•AFP/Getty Images
“See, [for] the bowling group, I will tell you the plans: we are very clear to get a lot of experience in it,” Hardik said, “because Wankhede can be sometimes very unforgiving to the bowlers, the kind of track which we play on. So it was very, very important to bring in experience – from Mitch [Santner] to Trent.”Trent was very, very important for us. Deepak, all are experienced individuals. Boom [Bumrah], myself, Mujeeb [Ur Rahman] – even youngsters who have played a lot of cricket. And I think that was very, very important to bring a lot of experience. So when the tough time comes, they have felt the pressure earlier.”Hardik himself will miss MI’s opening game against CSK on March 23 in Chennai, serving a one-match suspension that he is carrying forward from the end of last IPL. To add to their worries, MI also hold a record of not winning their first match of an IPL season since 2012.”There’s a little bit more adrenaline for the boys as well [playing against CSK],” Jayawardene said. “Yeah, we have a big challenge to try and correct something in history where we haven’t won a first match in a tournament for a number of years. So looking forward to that.”