Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Rohit Sharma meets Mumbai team after twin defeats

India vice-captain Rohit Sharma made a surprise visit to a struggling Mumbai side's practice session at MCA's Bandra Kurla Complex facility. The purpose of the visit was to motivate the Mumbai Ranji side, who recently suffered twin defeats at the hands of Railways and title favourites Karnataka.

Mumbai coach Vinayak Sawant summoned the services of Rohit Sharma, who took a rest from the ongoing T20I series against Sri Lanka. Sharma reminded the future stars of the country about the 2006-2007 and the 2009-10 Ranji season where Mumbai came back from the brink to win the title against all odds.

Sawant talked to TOI and said:

"I requested Rohit to have a word with the boys. He spoke to them for 15 minutes. He gave them an example of how the Mumbai team came back from the dead to win the Ranji Trophy in the 2006-07 and 2009-10 season. He told them that in 2006-07, we had no points after the first three games. Another defeat and we would've been relegated. From that point, we went on to win the trophy. He thus asked them to believe that they can still come back and win from this situation."

Sawant gave a detailed summary of Sharma's time with the Mumbai Ranji team and said that the Indian star-player encouraged the young side to work harder after every defeat and not let complacency take over. Sawant stated:

"He told them that victory tastes sweeter after coming back from such defeats. However, they need to work harder to bounce back from here."

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In the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy final, Sachin Tendulkar scored a brilliant century in the first innings to help Mumbai win by 132 runs against Bengal. While in the 2009-10 final, Sawant played a crucial part in Mumbai's Ranji campaign which ended with an intriguing six-run win over Karnataka in the final.