Follow UsRyan Rickelton is no alien to playing for the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise, as he has been part of the MI Cape Town (MICT) set-up in SA20. The southpaw finished SA20 2025 with 336 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of nearly 179, as MICT went on to win their maiden title.
While MI is a new team for Rickleton, he feels quite at home given that the support staff are similar as well. But the Proteas man believes that the IPL is a different beast compared to the SA20.
"It's been a nice introduction into the group, the family - and obviously meeting Akash [Ambani, the MI owner] and everyone as well," Rickelton said after MI thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets at the Wankhede.
"It's not just coming in blind, so it has been an easier transition. But the IPL is a different beast on its own, so to mentally work my head around that is a bit of a different one for me… Luckily, I've got a few familiar faces around."
The South African batter finally got going against KKR, smashing 62 off 41 deliveries. He feels playing in the IPL has a lot of pressure internally and externally as well.
"Opening the batting for Mumbai Indians with Rohit Sharma, there's always going to be pressure internally and obviously externally as well," Rickelton said.
"Hardik [Pandya, the captain] was emphasising today, 'Raise intensity, this is our home ground.' We needed to be better, and obviously, we couldn't be zero [wins] from three [games].
"The standard is incredibly high, and the conditions are all changing. A year ago, [you] turn on the television, and teams are getting 260, and you think it's a free-for-all, but you come out, and it's actually not that easy.
"Different grounds have unique characteristics. The pressure factor internally is big, but externally is huge. You're playing with some of the world's best players, not just in this team but around the country, so that extra pressure is there and it's hard. I'm not going to lie: it's hard. [I'm] just trying to find my way through that, and trying to adjust my game in order to give the team the best chance of being successful."
Rickelton chopped on in the first two matches, but with just a 117-run target ahead of him, he felt he had the freedom to take a couple of deliveries more before he got going. "I was a bit nervous," he said.
"I just really wanted to get a score and just ease the nerves down. It was a relatively low total [target], so I knew I could afford a bit of time and just give myself those extra couple of balls… I felt like if I could face 18-20 balls, I'd have some kind of impact on the game and luckily I managed just to get through. It wasn't as fluent as I'd have liked it to be, but I'll take it.
"It was a massive relief, in all honesty. Our first two games were tricky, on some tough wickets. To get out here in Mumbai and have Spencer [Johnson] turn me inside out was quite a tough battle to get through, but once I managed to get through that it was really pleasing to get a score - but relief, more than anything, and to get two points on the board is great for the team."
MI will hope to make it two in two when they take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 4 (Saturday) in Lucknow.