Mumbai Indians — having won the title five times — is eyeing on the cup for the sixth time after a disastrous season in 2022. It finished bottom of the ten-team points table, managing just four wins from 14 encounters.

Revisiting the time spent with the Mumbai and Team India captain — Rohit Sharma — his former teammate Pragyan Ojha remembers how both of them were part of defunct Deccan Chargers in the inaugural edition.

Ojha even revealed how Sharma was forced to deliver milk packets to support his cricketing career.

“When I first met Rohit in the U-15 national camp, everyone said he was a very special player. There, I played against him and took his wicket. Rohit being a typical Bombay guy, didn’t speak much but was aggressive when he played. In fact, I was very surprised as to why he was being so aggressive with me when we didn’t know each other! But after that our friendship began to grow,” said Ojha in an interview to Jio Cinema.

“He was from a middle-class family and I remember he once got emotional when we discussed how his budget for cricket kits was restricted. In fact, he also delivered milk packets – of course that was really a long time ago – so that he could buy his kit. Now when I see him, I feel very proud of how our journey started and where we reached,” added Ojha.

Keeping aside veteran wicketkeeper-batter MS Dhoni, Rohit is the most successful captain in the history of the IPL competition.

Looking at his batting records, Rohit is currently the fourth-highest run-scorer in IPL. Also, he has won a total of six IPL titles, five with Mumbai and one with Deccan Chargers back in the 2009 edition.