Karn Sharma downplays talk of justifying his selection ahead of Bhajji

'The main motivation when I get a game is to perform for the team and help the team win'

Mumbai Indians' Karn Sharma is confident of winning the Indian Premier League season 10 final against Rising Pune Supergiant even though they had lost all three league matches against them.

"We are fully prepared and we will win the final. That is for sure. The losses were in the past," he told reporters in post-match press conference in Bengaluru.

Mumbai had lost all the three matches against Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Steve Smith's side in league stages.

Asked if there was any pressure on him to justify his selection over Harbhajan Singh, the Railways leg-break bowler said, "That is not in my hands. The team needs me at that time and I just want to bowl well and win the match for them. That's more important. I am working hard even when I am not playing. The main motivation when I get a game is to perform for the team and help the team win," Sharma said.

Speaking about his strategy to dismiss KKR's left-handers Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir, Sharma said the team had different plans for different batsmen.

For Narine, they were asked to bowl stump to stump line as he swings his bat at every possible opportunity.

"We have different plans for different batsmen. For Narine, we wanted to bowl at the stumps because he has a very good bat swing. We had different plans for different batsmen and that's what I executed," he said.

Replying to a query, Sharma said T20 is about momentum and hence the team won the game despite the wicket being a bit slow.

"It was a little bit slow. It was not like the earlier Bangalore wickets. But it was good that we bowled well from the start and got wickets. T20 is all about momentum. We started well in the first six overs and that’s why we won the game," he said.