'Future looks bright and I'm excited'- Mumbai Head coach Amol Muzumdar heaps praise on players

The Mumbai state team head coach Amol Muzumdar seemed proud of the efforts from all the players, despite losing the Ranji Trophy 2021/22 finals to Madhya Pradesh. 

After conceding a lead of 162 runs in the first innings, Mumbai could manage to have a lead of 107 runs in the subsequent innings, and the MP chased down the total with six wickets to spare. 

Muzumdar reckoned that it's been an exciting campaign since he has donned the coaching role in June 2021. He was excited about the talent and what the future holds for the team. 

"It's been exciting ever since I took over last June," he said after losing the final to Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. "I'm very proud of these young boys. We're watching the generation-next of Mumbai cricket and a little dose of it was provided this season. The future looks bright and I'm excited about it," said Muzumdar. 

The 47-year-old revealed that Mumbai Cricket Association had put a special emphasis on the state team to do well in the red-ball cricket, as they had last played the finals in the 2016/17 edition. However, irrespective of the result, Muzumdar believes the team is back on track with a relatively young and talented side, which just needs a right direction.  

"We hadn't qualified for a Ranji final since 2016-17, so that was one thing that was told by the MCA and the others around Mumbai cricket. Had we won, that would've come true, but at the same time, we're back on track with a young side. It's the next generation, they all have unbelievable talent and we need to just show them the direction."

Muzumdar thinks the Mumbai team had all their bases covered leading up to the Finals. He reckoned that the team had the experience of Dhawal Kulkarni, and the talented players like Shams Mulani, Tushar Deshpande, and Tanush Kotian. However, he thinks that didn't go well on the third day of the fixture, wherein they failed to pick up wickets in regular intervals. 

"It was all bases covered coming into the final," Muzumdar said. "In the bowling especially, we had the experience of Dhawal, the pace of Tushar [Deshpande], who is a slippery customer. Mohit [Avasthi] is young and exuberant. Then a left-arm spinner in great form," added the former Mumbai cricketer. 

"We had Tanush Kotian, an exciting offspinner. I think just the one day [the third day] didn't go our way, it hasn't happened that we have failed to pick up wickets across lengthy periods. It was a terrific performance till the finals."

In the end, the head coach thought it was a tough competition among the teams in the league stage of the tournament, and that they were very close to losing out to another finals in the 2022 edition. 

"There are no small teams anymore," he said. "In fact, it's a little bit of a push for the bigger teams like Karnataka, Mumbai, and Delhi to push themselves to the next level. There was tough competition in the league phase. It was brilliant [that the Ranji Trophy was going] because at one stage I felt we were personally going to lose out on another year," concluded Muzumdar.