Ponting's pep talk motivated Mumbai Indians to finish in last four in IPL 2014: Rohit Sharma

New Delhi [India], May 8 (ANI): Indian opener and Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma on Friday revealed that former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting, then advisor of the franchise, motivated the side to finish in last four after losing the first five matches during the 2014 season.
The 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) was jointly hosted by UAE and India due to the general elections in the country.
Mumbai Indians lost the five consecutive games in the first leg of the tournament. After coming back to India, the side gained momentum and won four successive matches to qualify for the play-offs.
During an Instagram live session with SunRisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner, the right-handed batsman credited the team's success to Ponting.
"That was pretty tough, we were going through tough times. There was a lot of pressure from the spectators, people in Mumbai are quite passionate. Our owners are also very passionate, we were in Dubai for five games, we lost all those games. Luckily for me, I had Ponting around then, Ponting is an impactful person. He was always motivating the younger guys, he was only going to talk to younger guys, he was not worried about the senior guys," Rohit said.
"His idea was to make sure that the young guys don't drift away much, once we returned to India in 2014, things changed for us, he gave us a pep talk and we rallied around that," he added.
Although, Mumbai, then defending champion, lost to Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in the Eliminator and Kolkata Knight Riders emerged as the eventual winner of the 2014 title.
Rohit would have been in action for the Mumbai Indians had the Indian Premier League (IPL) commenced from March 29. However, the tournament has been suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic. (ANI)