'Thought early wickets would give us upper hand': Madhwal

MI pacer Akash Madhwal (right) celebrates a RR wicket with teammate Rohit Sharma

Pacer Akash Madhwal was the only shining light for the Mumbai Indians on an otherwise dark night when the rest of his teammates were utterly woeful against the Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium.

On Monday, Madhwal, playing his first match of IPL 2024, impressed with 3-20, but couldn't stop RR from inflicting an embarrassing six-wicket defeat on the hosts, leaving them at the bottom of the table with three-out-of-three losses.

With as many as three golden ducks (Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis) MI managed to post just 125-9 on the board after losing the toss and being put in to bat.

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Madhwal, 30, said that the plan during the innings break was to try and take early wickets. "The plan during the innings break was to go out and take quick wickets. Even during the strategic timeout, we discussed sticking to the plan and taking two-three wickets to gain the upper hand. We had planned to get the basics right and bowl wicket-to-wicket because the pitch was helping fast bowlers," Madhwal said at the post-match press conference.

The MI fans are not pleased with the change of skipper this season from five-time IPL champion Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya, but Madhwal said that nothing much has changed for him on the field. "I speak to both Rohit bhaiya and Hardik [during matches]. In fact, during the practice matches, I even spoke to Bumrah bhai, so there is no problem. The team environment is excellent," added Madhwal, who accounted for RR's Jos Buttler (13), skipper Sanju Samson (12) and R Ashwin (16).