Settling down in his new big role with the two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions, Jayawardene said that playing different tournaments has made coaching an easier job for him
Mumbai Indians' talent scout, John Wright, called their new head coach Mahela Jayawardene as "very contemporary, right up to date with T20 cricket".
The 39-year-old Sri Lankan who retired from international cricket in 2014-15, has been busy playing T20 leagues around the world. He was last playing in Pakistan Super League and New Zealand's domestic T20 tournament, Super Smash, earlier this year.
Settling down in his new big role with the two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions, Jayawardene said that playing different tournaments has made coaching an easier job for him.
"I think playing around the world and in different conditions do help. But coaching is a different role altogether. I need to step back and let the players play and try and make sure the preparation is done, give them the freedom to go and express themselves. Tactically, we will discuss a lot of things behind the scenes, we have got a great coaching staff to help them out, we will give them as many ammunition as possible to go out there and execute that," Jayawardene said at the pre-season press conference here on Sunday.
Jayawardene, who worked as a batting consultant with England before and during the ICC World T20 in 2015-16, said he was happy to be on the same side as captain Rohit Sharma and not be against him.
"I am happy that I am not on the park, especially in Kolkata when he (Sharma) is full swing," he said.
Making known his admiration for Sharma, Jayawardene added: "It's just brilliant to be working with him personally. He is an amazing talent. Rohit is a very instinctive player, naturally gifted. He just goes with the flow and he creates his opportunities and that suits quite well when you are a T20 captain because you need to react to situations out there in the middle pretty quickly and try and stay a couple of overs ahead. That is what he does when he bats and he instinctively creates those situations for himself."
For Jayawardene, it is learning every day, be it while playing or, now coaching. Staying grounded is how the former Sri Lanka captain lives his life. Not boasting of his international achievements and, at the same time, not brooding over the losses.
"To be part of a (2011) World Cup final is always a brilliant feeling. There were good memories personally for me, but India was the better team on that day and they beat us..
"I enjoyed it but it was six years ago. There are lot of things in life which hurt, I have lost around four finals, not just one; so I would like to keep a balance of everything. We learn from every mishap that happens and just move on in life. I think that's the beauty of life. It hurt at that moment but not after that," he said when reminded of the 2011 World Cup loss at the Wankhede, Mumbai Indians' home ground, exactly six years ago.
Mumbai Indians open their campaign against Rising Pune Supergiant in Pune on April 6 and will be up against Steve Smith among others. Asked how he would stop the Australian, who scored heavily in the just-concluded India-Australia Test series, the right-handed batsman said:
"Get him out early, I guess. It is not just going to be Steve Smith but they have a quality batting line-up. You got Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane), MS (Dhoni), Faf (du Plessis), (Ben) Stokes now. It is a very strong batting line-up, you can't just focus on one player only. As a bowling group we've got some very experienced players, who have the talent, so we will find a few ways and means to do that. That is a challenge of the IPL I think, every team has that quality, we just need to trust our abilities and play to our strengths and I think that is important," he said.
IPL is probably THE tournament so far really because of the number of years it has been in existence. If you see the number of players who come to play the IPL, very much all the countries are represented with their best players. You are up against the best. It is not like you are playing against the country. You get the best T20 players from each country who you go against
- Mahela Jayawardene, MI head coach
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 "Mahela Jayawardene")
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