IPL 2018: Mumbai Indians start with their hard preparations on the Day 1 of the training camp

All the eight franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) have started on with their respective methods of different preparations for the upcoming season. The defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) would be facing the returning Chennai Super Kings (CSK)  in the opening match of the season on April 7.

CSK have already started with their major preparations in the presence of their experienced core which includes the likes of skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, DJ Bravo, Harbhajan Singh and many others have already joined the proceedings, while some of the overseas players would be coming along in the upcoming days. Their opening opposition, Mumbai Indians also enforced their first training camp for the upcoming edition of the IPL on Monday.

The Mumbai team would certainly be aiming to continue their winning run in their massive quest to defend the title. In the ten years history of the IPL, only Chennai have gone on to successfully defend their title as CSK won two successive IPL titles in 2010 and 2011. The Rohit Sharma-led side will be hoping for some similar heroics in the upcoming season.

Hard training with some enjoyment at the day 1 of the camp

This year the Mumbai Indians players would be clearing the currently famous YO-YO test in order to prove their fitness for the Twenty20 competition. The YO-YO fitness test is a popular method of testing the fitness of cricketers followed by the senior Indian team as well as many other teams across the globe.

At the first day of the training camp, the Mumbai players were seen doing some hard training drills and different fitness sessions were being carried on in order to prepare themselves in the best possible manner for the upcoming battle. Along with the solid training sessions, the MI players also enjoyed themselves in building a strong bonding within their team as there have been many new faces who would be featuring in the squad for the first time for Mumbai, this year.

What a brilliant start to the #MICamp! ??

Yo-Yo test, bonding and lots more. For more photos visit ? https://t.co/ODo9cJiOHg#CricketMeriJaan pic.twitter.com/ScKwfffL5V

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 26, 2018

A different set of challenges laid for Rohit and his team

Rohit is the only skipper in the history of the IPL to lead his team to a record three successful title-winning campaigns in 2013, 2015 and then in 2017. But this year, the path to glory will certainly be full of difficulties and extreme challenges to bear for the defending champions of the tournament. They would have to figure out the right set of combination from a large group of talented players present in the MI squad.