IPL 2021: "Mumbai Indians know how to deal with the pressure at the back end, we are looking forward to making history" - Zaheer Khan
Zaheer Khan recently asserted that the Mumbai Indians are well equipped to handle the pressure during the business end of the tournament. The director of cricket operations for the Mumbai Indians, Khan, backed his side to come good in the next few games. He also revealed that they are vying to make history by winning their third consecutive IPL trophy this year.
In the pre-match conference on Saturday, Zaheer Khan spoke about the Mumbai Indians' journey going forward and also gave an update on Hardik Pandya's fitness. He said:
"Hardik has started practicing. We hope he will be fit and available for tomorrow's game. Our team knows how to deal with the pressure at the back end of the tournament. We are looking forward to making history. We all understand how important this season is. Pollard always wants to take more responsibility. His game-changing ability in the middle is key for us. Our middle-order just needs to find the rhythm and we have a very experienced crop of players to fall back to."
🎙️ Pre-match Press Conference time 🎙️
🗣️ Our Director of Cricket Operations, Zaheer Khan is all set to address the media ahead of the #RCBvMI encounter 👊
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Our middle-order hasn’t really kicked in and got going: Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond
Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond was critical of his side's middle order and opined that they haven't performed to their potential this year so far.
At the post-match conference after the Mumbai Indians' demoralizing loss against the Kolkata Knight Riders, Bond commented on the reasons for MI's poor performance and said:
“Yeah, it’s a fair comment (on MI’s middle order not performing). I think if we look at our team in the general sense, we are probably operating at about 80 percent. In the last game we played, in the first six overs, we put ourselves in a position to control the game."
He added:
"But that middle-order hasn’t really kicked in and got going. We talk a lot about someone kicking through the back end of the innings so that the batting order can play around them. We just haven’t been able to do that and so, once again, we found ourselves with a score that was sub-par."
The Mumbai Indians have lost both matches in the second half of IPL 2021 so far. It meant they slipped down to the sixth position in the IPL table with eight points in nine games. They will face now face RCB on Sunday.