Mumbai Indians are yet to decide on Sachin Tendulkar's opening partner for Thursday's IPl match against Royal Challengers Bangalore with skipper Ricky Ponting saying that the decision would depend on conditions.
"Anybody can open with Sachin depending upon the weather and pitch conditions. We could end up playing a shorter game as it has been raining here for the past two days, but not today, Keeping this in mind we will decide on the opening combination before the toss," he told reporters here at the pre-match press conference.
Ponting said in the last couple of seasons MI have tried a lot of opening combinations and they are hoping that the choice this season would bring in good results.
Ponting said the team will surely miss lasith Malinga on Thursday. "It is disappointing to miss him in the first game. Hope he will be okay after a couple of days. Malinga will join the team on April five in Mumbai," he said.
On Malinga's replacement, Ponting said the team hasn't yet decided on the playing eleven. "We will take a call on it after taking into account weather and pitch conditions." Ponting said the team was not thinking of winning the IPl at this moment as it's a long tournament. "We are thinking of tomorrow's game. We cannot afford to look too far ahead. I am sure towards the end of the tournament, we will be right up there," he said.
Meanwhile, RCB skipper Virat Kohli said that he was unhappy to miss the services of Anil Kumble as the 'Mentor' but the players guided by the former India captain would turn the heat on MI tomorrow. "We miss the services of Kumble, but luckily we have bunch of players he had mentored who are pretty confident, and we are ready to cash on them," he told reporters here on the eve of the match against Mumbai.
Kohli further said Kumble's attitude of giving hundred percent on the field and giving confidence to players a little low in confidence strick him the most. "He kept pushing players to perform. When the players were down, he would pull them up all by himself. That was something very striking about his captaincy. I surely like to implement the same as he did on the field," he elaborated.
Kohli said Zaheer is suffering from a bit of side strain and is almost 70-80 per cent fit and rearing to go in next couple of games. The talented batsman said AB de Villiers will be missed initially as he has been batting beautifully in recent times, but the team has guys to cover up his absence.
Kohli said he really enjoyed the challenge of captaincy before in couple of matches and is an honour to lead the guys boasting of an experience of 20 years. "I have grown up seen them playing on the TV. Now I have a chance to lead them in IPl. Hopefully I can do the right things on the field," he said.
Kohli also added, "We also have few all-rounders who are getting into the groove," he said.
He further added that he has told his teammates that focus should be on their performance rather than concentrating on others. "All we can do is to concentrate on our skills," he said.
The mood of the team is good, but cannot take any team lightly. "We cannot expect anything in IPl. All we have to do is concentrate on one game at a time," he said.