Mumbai Indians to kickstart IPL camp from Saturday

Mumbai Indians will begin their preparatory camp for the cash-rich league under new head coach and former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene from Saturday, the franchise confirmed on Friday.

The nine-day preparatory camp led by Rohit Sharma, will continue at the Wankhede Stadium till April 2, after which the team will travel to Pune to start their campaign against Pune Rising Supergiant on April 6.

Jayawardene will be joined by the existing team of support staff including Robin Singh (batting coach), Jonty Rhodes (fielding coach), Shane Bond (bowling coach), Paul Chapman (trainer) and Nitin Patel (physio).

Rohit , who was ruled out of the upcoming Deodhar Trophy after a minor knee injury will attend the camp along with his India teammates Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Hardik Pandya. The trio will be joined by the team’s latest picks in Karn Sharma, Krishnappa Gowtham, Saurabh Tiwary along with the retained players Jagadeesha Suchith, Vinay Kumar, Nitesh Rana, Deepak Punia and Jitesh Sharma.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will start their preparations for the tenth edition of the cash-rich cricket league here from Saturday.

The KKR side, however, were dealt a major blow after their star recruit New Zealand’s Trent Boult recently sustained an injury during the Kiwis ongoing Test series against South Africa at home. The left-arm seamer who was roped in by KKR for a whopping five crores failed to recover in time from the groin injury that forced him out of the second Test, won by the Proteas in Wellington last weekend. Skipper Gautam Gambhir is slated to join on Monday.