Mahela Jayawardene was delighted with Vignesh Puthur's instant success but the Mumbai Indians head coach said the left-arm wrist spinner need to keep his feet on the ground and “start from ball one again” in their next Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
Vignesh scalped three wickets, giving away 32 runs, against Chennai Super Kings in his IPL debut a few days ago to hog the limelight.
So, what made Mumbai to blood a little-known young bowler in the pressure match against Chennai?
“It's just the skill set. He wasn't fazed by anything we've thrown at him. That's a good thing about him. Yes, it was unknown for us because he hasn't played but I thought he held his nerves and bowled brilliantly,” Jayawardene said.
“It's a learning process. He needs to start from ball one again and he understands that and we're just building for that,” he added.
Jayawardene said Vignesh was always in the scheme of things once he saw the Chepauk pitch.
“We just felt that whether it's the last game or whether it's the 10th game or whether it's next year, he was always going to play for Mumbai and he was ready to play. And given the combination that we wanted to play, once we went to Chennai, we saw the wicket as well and we felt that his skillset suited the conditions,” he noted.
The process of preparing the 24-year-old spinner from Kerala for big games had started much ahead of the IPL, when he was sent to Cape Town to train alongside Rashid Khan.
“I was part of the thought process. It was just to expose him to cricket because we felt that there is talent and he hasn't played much cricket.”
The Sri Lankan legend also cautioned the fans to keep the expectations on Vignesh at realistic levels.
“I know there's a lot of things that have been said (about Vignesh), but guys, it's just a game of cricket. Things can change. He can have his good and bad days. So we're preparing him for that,” he said.
‘No timeline for Bumrah's return'
Jayawardene said pacer Jasprit Bumrah is still recuperating from his back injury at the BCCI Centre of Excellence.
“Everyone is available except for Bumrah. Like I said in my last interview as well, it's on a daily basis that he's going through his programme.
“So far, everything seems okay. But there were no timelines given by NCA, so we'll wait on that,” he added.
Jayawardene did not read too much into the trend of high-scoring matches in the IPL, placing the faith on an experienced MI bowling unit and his team's ability to adapt to different venues.
“We've got a very experienced bowling attack and they don't think like that. I think we have to segregate the venues. I think we've got enough experience to understand how it works. Like I said, each venue, each opposition throws different challenges at us and that's something that we will focus on.
Jayawardene added that Arjun Tendulkar was recovering from a brief illness and he will be considered for selection if the need arises.
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