There wasn’t any hand-wringing, lip-biting angst in the Mumbai camp when the defending champions went through the paces at the MCA’s Bandra Kurla Complex on Monday.
But Mumbai coach Praveen Amre knows his boys have to push harder against Himachal Pradesh from Tuesday if they have to
defend the Ranji title.
Around this time last season, Mumbai were sitting pretty at 11 points from two games. Not that Amre’s men are at a loss this time around, but they know they have to start winning matches if they want to take the lead and finish the tournament on a high.
The home team has garnered only four points from two matches thus far, and, explaining their tepid start to the season, Amre said: “Every year it’s a different challenge. Last year, we began at home against Rajasthan.
This year, we came very close to winning our first match against Punjab, but Ramesh (Powar) was missing on the last day.
He is an important member of the squad and we’ll miss him in this match again. He is yet to be cleared by the medical team.” “Against Orissa, we came close to getting the points for the first innings lead. But again the match was spoiled due to rain. We are trying hard every moment,” he added.