Mumbai, Nov 30: The Mumbai Ranji team will take on Bengal in their fourth game of the season at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday, December 1. The former champions are yet to register an outright win in the tournament so far and are currently in third position in Group A, behind Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. They have seven points from three games, while their opponents Bengal have six points from four matches.

Speaking about the team’s performance, stand-in captain Rohit Sharma who has been leading the side in the absence of Ajit Agarkar (who was named captain for the first four games) said, “It looks pretty tight right now. This game will be very crucial for us. So we’ll try and do well and take it from there on. Only Punjab is far ahead.”

“Bengal has good players. I believe that one should never underestimate any opponent. We will go and try to do what we need to do. We will try and focus on our side. They have good players too and they will come hard at us because they lost the last game and in our last game we didn’t win on the first innings also. It will be a good contest between Mumbai and Bengal, it has always been, so you will expect another cracker from this game.”

“We were not able to get an outright victory in the last three games, but I feel our bowlers did a good job. We played on flat wickets and there wasn’t much for the bowlers, but I must give credit to the bowlers for putting in such a good effort and getting those three crucial points because I feel restricting Rajasthan to 478 was commendable because they were 270 for two on Day 1. We came back strongly on the second day and we got them. But they tried their best. We have to be more consistent and if we manage to do that, the results will favour us.”

Sharma who led the team against Rajasthan and Hyderabad said that he has been enjoying captaincy and believes in leading from the front. The 25-year-old batsman said, “It is an added responsibility and I am enjoying it and hopefully it will change my batting and my approach towards the game and also it will change me as a person. I am trying to lead from the front. I am getting to know the players better and trying to find out how I can extract more out of them. I am trying to make everyone comfortable.”

Asked whether it means that he would be curbing his shots he replied, “I don’t want to change my game. I just want to change my approach. Added responsibility doesn’t mean I will stop playing my shots. If the ball is there in my range, I will go for it. It doesn’t change my game at all. My game has to be the way I have been playing for over the years. But I am more careful now, but as a batsman you have to be careful when you go in to bat.”

“I want to carry the legacy forward, which has been set up by all the great captains who have led Mumbai. I am really honoured to lead Mumbai. As a kid I grew up watching the stalwarts of Mumbai cricket. I never dreamt of being the Mumbai captain. In a way, one of my childhood dreams has come true. I want to live up to expectations,” he added.

Speaking about former skipper and veteran batsman, Wasim Jaffer coming back into the side, Sharma said, “He is a big boost to our batting unit. He brings with him such huge experience and a great player, skill so his presence will be very important and we are looking forward to it. Hopefully, he will straightaway start scoring runs for us. He will open the batting for us.”

Asked whether a Test place is at the back of his mind, Sharma said, “Yes it is. Whenever you are going out you always want to play top level, which is playing for India. So always things are there at the back of the mind, but I don’t want it to affect my game. I just want to enjoy in the middle and not think about all those things. It is your ultimate goal to be part of the squad but I don’t want to put any pressure on myself. I want to enjoy what I am doing right now so I will continue doing that.

Speaking about his and his team’s fitness, he said, “Surya is fit. Agarkar is not going to play as he hasn’t recovered yet. He feels he needs to bowl a lot more. He wants to be rested for one more game. My forearm is okay [which was hurt during practice]; should be fine by tomorrow. There’s a small niggle but I should be fit to play tomorrow.”

On the wicket at CCI he said, “There will be some help from the wicket [for the bowlers]. CCI wicket always offers some bounce and there will be something for the spinners on Days 3 and 4. This morning the wicket looked very hard and there’s some grass on the wicket too. It’s going to be a good track for fast bowlers.”