Ashwin's leadership is helping Mujeeb: Hodge

Leadership plays an important role in a player's development and young Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman's improved performance has a lot to do with playing under the wings of Ravichandran Ashwin, Kings XI Punjab chief coach Brad Hodge insisted on Tuesday.

All of 17, Mujeeb has played in KXIP's all seven games with seven wickets at an economy rate of 6.51.

Ashwin in fact wanted the teenager to defend 17 runs against Delhi Daredevils at Kotla and he responded to his captain's call by restricting the opposition to 12 runs.

"Mujeeb has shown a great level of composure. At such young age, he has confidence in his abilities. I would also give credit to Ashwin's leadership skills. He has been very encouraging. Good leaders help talented players get to the next level," Hodge told PTI during an interaction.

For Hodge, it is important that Mujeeb is nurtured in a proper fashion as he is immensely talented.

"Mujeeb is a very simple human being. Therefore, it is important that one makes him aware about the various processes without making it complicated. Communication is one issue but we have very capable assistant coaches, who would pass any specific message that needs to be conveyed to him," Hodge said.

Hodge, who was an acclaimed T20 freelancer during his playing days (he represented 16 various domestic T20 teams), is enjoying his partnership with KXIP's Director of Cricket Virender Sehwag.

So how have they segregated their roles? "It is a partnership of cricketing minds and that's the part of the process. Together, we discuss the strategies. It is a perfect mixture of taking collective decisions that would benefit the team."

"I think the secret of KXIP's success this season has been at the auction table itself. We went into auction with a plan which was successfully executed," Hodge added.