Mumbai Indians have had a forgettable journey in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2022 as the five-time champions are reeling at the bottom-most position of the points table with nine defeats from eleven matches. They have fought hard in some matches, but their inability to hold their nerves during crunch situations has badly affected their on-field performance.
As speculated earlier, Mumbai’s bowling department has let them down in most matches this season. Basil Thampi, who MI bought in the mega auction, is among the bowlers who have underperformed for MI as the well-built pacer from Kerala has conceded 152 runs at an economy of 9.50 in the five games he has played in the tournament.
However, the 28-year-old seamer has revealed that he got the motivation he needed after having a bad day on the field as the great Sachin Tendulkar invited him to chat with him after the game’s completion.
In a video posted by MI’s official YouTube channel, Thampi said that the team doctor informed him that Sachin wanted to talk to him after the match. Later, he spent around forty minutes with the legendary Indian batter discussing almost every aspect of the game.
“I had a bad game, and I got a message from the doc (the doctor) that Sachin sir wants to meet me. I spent like forty minutes with him and we talked about cricket. We covered everything,” Thampi said.
Continuing, Thampi said that Zaheer Khan and Shane Bond also shared their words of wisdom regarding how they used to prepare for the matches and deal with the situation in case they had a bad day. He also said that both these legendary fast bowlers are friendly and easily approachable, which is undoubtedly a positive sign for a budding fast bowler like him.
“Zak (Zaheer) sir and Bondy (Bond) sir were talking about how they prepare for the game. How do they react to the situation? They were very, very friendly to talk to, and you know, whenever we have time, we can message them,” the seamer concluded.
This season, the most successful IPL franchise became the first team to get knocked out of the race for the playoffs.