Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma has promised to play 'fearless brand' of cricket in the Playoff stages of the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015. Rohit is a happy captain as he has been part of the dramatic turnaround of MI this season.
Mumbai Indians have managed to comeback in earlier seasons of the IPL as well after being put to in do-or-die situations and emerged successful. On Sunday, MI faced Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the latter's home ground in Hyderabad. SRH were one of the strong contenders for the Playoffs, but suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the men in blue, resulting in their elimination from the race.
Mumbai Indians lost four matches in a row at the start of the IPL 2015, but managed to win one later, followed by a loss. Ever since then, Rohit Sharma-led men in blue have played some brilliant cricket and went on to win five matches in a row, to place themselves in the race to qualify for the Playoffs.
"It feels great. But this just shows the character of the Mumbai Indians. We have created an atmosphere inside the dressing room and around MI that no matter what situations we are in, we never have to put our head down.
"When we started off losing four games in a row, nobody believed we could qualify.
"It is not about proving anyone wrong but we just wanted to prove to ourselves that we are much better than the results. We did exactly that and look at us now, in the top two in the table at the end of the league stage," said Rohit in an interview to the official website of the IPL.
Being the skipper of the side, Rohit had to remain positive and cheer his men up. He knew that he had enough arsenal to make it to the playoff stages and helped his fellow players to keep on believing in themselves and bring the best out of them.
"As a captain, as a leader it is very important for me to remain positive no matter what happens on the field. For me it is important to keep talking to a lot of players and ensure they stay in the present," Rohit said.
Mumbai Indians are now in the second spot in the standings of the IPL 2015, giving themselves two chances to make it to the big Final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. But Rohit would want to win the Qualfier One against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and do it in one go.
"Finishing in the top two obviously gives us a chance to play fearlessly. I feel we have played good games till now but the playoffs will be a different ball game. You can't afford to make too many mistakes but knowing you have a second chance it gives us the license to play fearless cricket. We want to go out there and play without thinking about the result. We won't think about who we are playing, we will be focusing on our strengths," said Rohit.
