Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma said that playing the 15th season in their home city isn't an advantage for the five-time champions.
Due to the fear of Covid-19 once again impacting the IPL, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is staging the ongoing edition of the lucrative league across three venues in Mumbai and the MCA Stadium in Pune.
However, Rohit doesn't think that playing a majority of their games in Mumbai gives an advantage to Mumbai as he pointed out that most of the players in the squad aren't from MI, and hence they aren't familiar with the conditions here.
"Speaking of home advantage, I believe, except me and Surya, there are not many guys from Mumbai. Like I said before, it's a relatively new team; not many of these guys have played in the climatic conditions of the city of Mumbai," said Rohit Sharma, as quoted by ANI.
"They must have played a few games, but not a lot of games. So, I personally don't believe it's a full-on advantage. Yes, we have been practising here in Mumbai for a very long time now. But not a lot of these guys have not played a lot of games."
Sharma further added that had the IPL taken place in Mumbai last year, that would have been an advantage for his team as most of the players from that squad were familiar with the conditions.
He added, "So yes, being in Mumbai, being a home team, being a Mumbai franchisee, that's an addition. But if I really want to talk about the skills of having been used in these types of conditions, that has not been done yet,"
"Because I don't totally believe in this advantage. If the IPL would have happened last year in Mumbai. Yes, it would be an advantage as a lot of players from last year had played in Mumbai," he added.
Sharma's words seem to be vindicated considering how Mumbai has played so far this season.
The five-time champions have lost their games thus far and have looked a pale shadow of their former selves, especially in the bowling department.
They will lock horns with the Kolkata Knight Riders in Pune on April 06.