NEW DELHI: After finishing at the bottom of the table last season, Mumbai Indians will look to turn their fortunes around as they held their first practice session of the season ahead of IPL 2023 under head coach Mark Boucher.
The team had its first outdoor session which included strength and conditioning evaluations along with on-field sessions prior to the season. The session was led by Boucher, making his debut with the Mumbai Indians, with the coaching team of Shane Bond, bowling coach, and James Pamment, fielding coach, guiding and supporting the players in their first training.
Addressing his first team on the field before training, Boucher set the context of what he expects the group to focus on in the early seasons, as players and coaches get to know each other better.
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“The first few days are more about building a base to get to know the teammates, understanding the style of play and fitness levels, and getting into technical training. We can’t do anything in cricket without a base, so the next set of training sessions will be about building a base and evaluating ourselves, chatting with coaches, and focusing on technical training, cricketing skills, and skill sets. There will be some nervousness, and that’s absolutely fine, that’s natural. I want us to enjoy myself.”
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The first training session featured the international pairing of Piyush Chawla, Tilak Verma, Hrithik Shokeen, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Mohd Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Arjun Tendulkar, Raghav Goyal, Vishnu Vinod, Akash Madhwal and Shams Mulani as well as Devald. Brewis and Duane Jansen.
Batting coach Kieron Pollard arrived later in the evening and is set to join training sessions in the coming days as the build-up to IPL 2023 gathers pace. Mumbai Indians will play their first match of the season against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 2 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
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