The wait was long, 306 days to be exact after playing her last. Two years if you count when it was our official home. But, finally, the MI boys are back at their home: the Wankhede Stadium.

The players were all excited to step into the fortress as they started their training session for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League on Saturday. They had an intense training session under the floodlights at the Wankhede, sweating it out in the nets and engaging with the coaching team helmed by Mark Boucher. 

Earlier, Boucher emphasised the importance of familiarity, sharpening techniques and a feeling of joy in training within the MI camp when he undertook his first session as Head Coach.

“The first couple of days are more about knowing the teammates, understanding the playing style, level of fitness and creating a base to get into the technical training. We can’t do anything in cricket without a base, so the next set of training sessions will be to build a base and keep evaluating ourselves, have chats with the coaches and focus on technical training, cricketing skills and skill sets. There will be some nervousness, and that is absolutely fine, it’s natural. I want us to enjoy ourselves.”

The final countdown to the start of IPL 2023 has begun, and we couldn’t be any more excited, ho ki naahi Paltan!