On the eve of MI’s pre-season press conference with captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Mahela Jayawardene, we asked fans to send in their questions.

Ro and Mahela answered some. Let’s see what queries the fans had.

Q: MI has invested in a few youngsters like Tilak Varma, Ramandeep Singh and Dewald Brevis. Are you looking to set-up for the future? (@CricCrazyJohns on Twitter)

Mahela’s A: “We have not thought that far ahead but MI always scouts for new talent who can come and achieve their dreams. It is an opportunity for the young guys to be in the same dressing room as Rohit, Polly and Boom, where they will learn a lot.

We invested in who we think are the future, it is in MI’s culture to do that. We are looking forward to the season with these youngsters and the challenges ahead.”

Q: Will Surya play as a finisher this season, considering he has been batting no.5 and no.6 for India? (@ingley_rohan on Twitter)

Mahela’s A: “Surya is a very flexible player, we have used him in different roles in MI. We will challenge the players to play different roles depending on how we set up the team this season.

I think we would love Surya to control the middle overs and if he is there to finish with Polly, it will be brilliant. He has shown that he can finish matches for India over the past year but it all depends on how we set up the team.”

Q: Tell us more about the young players who have come into the team, what do they bring to the table? (@sobhansai45 on Twitter)

Rohit’s A: “Mahela has spoken about our scouting program and we go into that looking for specific roles. When you can retain only four players, there are a lot of gaps to fill in. We looked into all-rounders, spinners and lower-order batters who can give us a few overs and top-order batters.

We got those guys in the auction thanks to the people who went and watched domestic games. If I look at the newcomers, they bring a different skillset to our team and we wanted that flexibility, we have the options we wanted.

The key is to give them comfort and clarity about what they have to do. A lot of these guys haven’t played the Tata IPL before so they could be nervous. It is upto us to give them a comfort zone and give them their space and enjoy the game. That is what we are trying to focus on. I hope we can create a good set-up for them.”

The think tank certainly went in with a clear plan on what type of players they wanted and it will be exciting to see how the team shapes up for the season.