Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya opened up about the talks inside the dressing room as the team desperately chasing a victory after suffering its fourth loss of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). After losing the toss against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) on April 18 (Thursday), MI skipper Hardik reiterated the importance of every member of the squad committing to the team's goal.
"We were wanting to bat first as well, so good toss to lose," Hardik told the broadcasters at the toss, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
"We don't judge (our performances), couple of times we had the game in our grasp and didn't finish the game, IPL tests you, when the game is not over it is not over. We just take it game by game, go out there and give our 100 percent. Every individual should commit to the team's goal and once we do that, the results will be seen," he added.
The Mumbai-based franchise suffered an agonising defeat against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their previous match. Despite Rohit Sharma's century at the Wankhede Stadium, the Mumbai Indians ended up losing the game by 20 runs. As a result, Mumbai suffered its fourth defeat of the season in six matches played and slipped to ninth place on the points table.
Mumbai asked to bat first
In the latest IPL showdown, Punjab Kings' standing captain Sam Curran won the coin flip and opted to field against Mumbai Indians on Thursday. PBKS introduced two new players into their playing XI: Rilee Rossouw took over for Jonny Bairstow, and Ashutosh Sharma came in for Atharva Taide. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians decided to stick with the same lineup they used in their previous game.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Rilee Rossouw, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh
Mumbai Indians Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah
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