Ponting backs Rohit to find his best

Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting has backed captain Rohit Sharma to regain his best form during the side's Indian Premier League title defence, which starts on Saturday.

Rohit is coming off a disappointing World T20 campaign for India, where he passed 20 just once in five innings as the tournament hosts were knocked out in the semi-finals.

It meant the 28-year-old dropped down to 16th in the ICC's T20 batting rankings, but Ponting is confident the opener can rediscover the form that has made him one of the most feared limited-overs batsmen in the world.

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The right-hander hammered 442 runs in the five-match One-Day International series against Australia in January, including two centuries and a score of 99, to continue an incredible 50-over career that has already seen him score more than 5000 runs in 148 games. 

Ponting says it's unrealistic to expect any player to be at their absolute best in every game they play.

"Rohit is one of the best players in the world," the former Australia captain said. "I think he's shown that over a long period of time.

"The one thing about our game is it's very hard to maintain exceptionally high standards all the time.

"There are going to be periods in your career when you have your ups and downs, but we all know how good a player Rohit is. He'll show that over the next few weeks."

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Ponting, in just his second year as Head Coach of Mumbai, will need Rohit to fire if the Indians are to become just the second IPL franchise to win back-to-back titles.

Rohit has been a consistent performer in the IPL over the years; he finished with 482 runs last season to be Mumbai's second highest run-scorer behind West Indian Lendl Simmons, was their second highest scorer in 2014 and led the way in 2013 and 2012.

Having spent most of last season batting at No.3 behind Simmons and wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel, Rohit said he was looking to return to the opening position for their match against the Rising Pune Supergiants at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night.

"I would like to open, at least in the initial games," he said.

"We have got a great set of batsmen in our squad, so there is a bit of a headache about whom to pick in the XI.

"A lot depends on what sort of balance we need. As captain, it's my responsibility to field the right combination."

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One man who won't be in the middle of the Wankhede on Saturday night is Mumbai's Sri Lankan quick Lasith Malinga, who is still battling a knee injury.

Ponting expects Malinga to miss at least the first half of the tournament and says he's yet to finalise which four foreign players (the maximum allowed in the IPL) he will include in the XI.

"Malinga at his best has been one of the great performers in world cricket, both with new and old ball," Ponting said.

"He will be missed, but we have to think about who the best replacement will be.

"Will it be (South African) Marchant de Lange, will it be (New Zealander) Tim Southee? Will we go in with three overseas batsmen?

"So, there are headaches we have, which is a nice thing.

"If Malinga is ruled out, we have more than adequate replacement to fill his boots."