IPL 2020 Final | Need to stay calm as leader; believe in giving confidence to players, states Rohit Sharma

One thing that stands out with Rohit Sharma is the way he backs his players through the thick and thin. As much as a franchise can scout good players, a bad captain can mess up things but that's never the case with the Mumbai Indians skipper, who is always on point be it in terms of selections, his decisions on the field or the overall tactics. He has turned Mumbai into the invincibles of the league and today with a victory over Delhi Capitals, they registered back-to-back IPL titles and their fifth IPL final win overall, which is staggering. 

MI put up a dominating performance on display throughout the season be it the first half or the second half, or the playoffs and just never let things off the hook. After the title win, Rohit Sharma, who made a match-winning fifty in the five-wicket win over DC in Dubai and never seemed fazed even with the Iyer-Pant partnership flourishing, stated that it's necessary for a captain to stay calm under pressure and he believes in backing players to the hilt. 

"You've got to find the right balance where you need to stay calm [as a leader]. I'm not someone who'll run with a stick behind someone. The only way you can do it is by giving them confidence. If you look at our batting, between Hardik, Krunal and Polly, we've been rotating them. In the bowling dept. too we try what works with us - Chahar was unfortunate, we needed Jayant tactically. When you want to change your XI to make it better, you should be able to do that [without letting someone down hard]," Rohit said in the post-match presentation. 

Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were involved in a huge mix-up that resulted in the run-out of the man in red-hot form Surya. It was completely Rohit's mistake yet the uncapped Indian batter had to sacrifice his wicket. Reflecting on the run-out, Rohit asserted that it should have been him sacrificing his wicket for Surya given his incredible run of form this season. He also added that SKY has played some incredible shots this year besides saying that MI give full freedom to Ishan Kishan to express himself.

"Ishan Kishan is someone who you can't cloud his judgement, he has to do what he wants to do in the field. Surya, the kind of form he was in, I should have sacrificed my wicket. I give him a lot of credit, it's not easy to do that. Some of the season he played incredible shots. These two guys, you got to keep motivating them and giving confidence and they come out with performances like that. We try and engage with our fans, unfortunately they could't be here, but their support means a lot. Fans are who make the game special for us. Missed playing in Wankhede."

It was perhaps one of the best seasons for MI and the skipper said that he was very happy with how everything panned for them. India's white-ball vice-captain also credited the backroom staff for their brilliant work in the IPL.

"Pretty happy with how things went the entire season for us. We said at the start we want to make winning a habit, and you couldn't have asked any more from the guys. We were right on the money from ball one and even until today, we never looked back. A lot of credit goes to people behind the scenes as well. We gotta give a lot of credit. Our work starts much earlier than the IPL starts. We analyse what went wrong, what needs to improved, stuff like that."