Just a few days ago, the Men in Blue and Gold snatched a win from the jaws of opponents KKR in a game that largely swayed the latter’s way. This win is mostly attributed to the impeccable bowling performance of the team throughout the second innings, superbly defending a total of 152.

Naturally, we have a lot of question for Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach, Shane Bond, who answered some questions in a press conference earlier today. From Rahul Chahar’s growth to the importance of planning for the game against SRH, Bond touched upon a range of things.

Below are some excerpts from the all-important press meet:

Rahul Chahar has the best figures against KKR. Can you tell us his mentality?

Shane: “I think he is doing extremely well. If you look at Rahul he is still an incredibly young man who’s played a fair bit of cricket now and some high-pressure cricket and so far has been a key member of our team. So in terms of his development, I still think he’s got a long way to go but I think the beauty about Rahul is we sit down and do a lot of work behind the scenes and how he is going to go about his game. He’s a really good listener and he is ready to get out there and implement it in the game, so, I’m hoping that’ll continue over the next few years.”

What is Rahul’s role in this season, specifically since we’re playing in Chennai?

Shane: “The role never changes for him. If you look at it, in our team, we’ve got some straight bowlers in it to bowl in the powerplay. Trent Boult, Booms and whoever compliments them, Krunal Pandya who was brilliant for us in the last game, I’d probably say he’s a slightly more defensive bowler. And Rahul’s a wicket-taking bowler. He bowled those balls that were too good. His role is to come in, spin the ball, and if the ball comes around, it gives him the opportunity to crack some pressure and take some wickets. That’s the role we look for him to do in the team.”

Mumbai Indians focuses a lot on domestic bowlers. When you are working with them, what do you tell them?

Shane: “For fitness, I have Paul Chapman. He is more than capable of getting them fit. Technique, you don’t have a lot of time here to do the technique work. What we try to aim and exercise is we bowl as a collective group, that’s more than the individual. Even with the star bowlers, the thing we talk about is it doesn’t matter who gets the wickets. If we do the job for the team, if we bowl to the plans that we’ve set and we do that as a group, then we’re very very tough to beat. We did that perfectly in the last game. A lot of the work that I do is around the game planning, the technical side of the game and making sure when the boys come to practice, they’re training on specific skills. We try to put the balls in the areas that we put them, and being very calm and clear about what we’re trying to do because when you’re under the pressure of the IPL and you’re bowling to the AB de Villiers and the Jos Buttlers, these outstanding batsmen, you have to take a deep breath and be calm and clear about what you’re doing. So, I try to do a lot of work in that space.”

MI has always had a strong pace attack. This year, we’re talking of spin. How important is the Krunal-Rahul duo for the same?

Shane: “As I said before, we are a collective bowling unit. I think the key to winning championships is, I always think, is a strong bowling attack. We’ve had five international bowlers playing in the Mumbai Indians’ bowling line-up for a long time. If you look at the last six or seven years that we’ve played in the Wankhede and last year in UAE, they’re good batting surfaces. The key was around those top-order wickets but also for our spinners to do a containing and a wicket-taking job for the middle, which someone like Krunal, with his stats over there can do so well. To be playing at Wankhede and going under a seven an over, he’s done an incredible job for us.”

“So, regardless of the pitch, the job never really changes and sometimes the value of the spin bowling combination and them being complimented by Jayant Yadav as well has probably been undervalued, to be fair. We’ve come to wickets that are turning and in turn, Krunal and Rahul were sensational in the last game. But also, the way our seam has bowled at the backend was awesome. I mean, we’ve 20 runs off the last five overs. So, when the wickets are a little bit up and down and have got some hold in it, the fast bowlers are equally important and still have to be accurate and do an outstanding job for us.”

What are the plans against SRH’s explosive top order batsmen David Warner and Jonny Bairstow?

Shane: “Yeah, we’ve got to get those two guys out. David’s one of the best batsmen in the IPL and a talisman for their team so we know how bowling at them can be tough. If you’re bowling one at them, at times we are challenging as well and we know if the wicket’s going to be slow and turning it’s going to be hard work. They are very disciplined about the way they go about their work. They flogged us in the last game last year and played beautifully. We plan the same for every team, we plan for the batsmen, how we’re going to get them out, how we’re going to best utilise the conditions.”

“The nature of this wicket is going to be hard work and a lot of batsmen, particularly from ten overs onwards have really struggled. I’m sure both teams are talking about what are the game plans from ten overs onwards and how we’re going to best utilise the backend of the innings, which has been a lot easy when the wickets have been good. So I think in this competition every game is being extremely tight, coming down to the last over.”

We look forward to what the MI bowlers, under the tutelage of Shane Bond, have in store for SRH when they meet them tomorrow.