Rohit views play-offs as a tournament in itself

His first target accomplished, defending champions Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma has not set his sights on the IPL play-offs, which he considers as a "small little tournament". 

MI (18 points from 13 games) has ensured a top-two finish in the IPL league table with a clinical nine-wicket win over Delhi Capitals on Saturday and will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their final game on Tuesday in Sharjah.

"Now that we know we have qualified, it's a good achievement. All the hard work that we did before we came here and also when we came here, it all paid off.  So, one hurdle which is being crossed, another small little tournament to play for us and before that we still got one more game against SRH (Sunrisers Hyderabad)," Rohit said in a video posted on MI's official Twitter page.

Rohit had missed the last four games for MI, as he is recovering from a left-leg hamstring injury, and he is unlikely to feature in their last game against SRH as well.

"It is going to be another important game for us, we don't want to think about the opposition to be honest. We just want to come out here and play and keep that momentum going. It is important when we play the play-offs," he said.

MI's Director of Cricket Operations and former India pacer Zaheer Khan said they know how to approach the play-offs having featured in the last-four stage many times in the past.

"Like last year, I think the play-offs is your time. I feel once the team goes to play-offs, the support staff's role is finished. It's about how you see it, that's your space. How you approach it, there are various factors, which come into play and I think this team knows how to play a play-off," Zaheer said in another video.