The musical chairs of Mumbai cricket has continued with Vinayak Samant now in the hot seat as the new head coach. And the task, like for all others, is cut out for him as well - to win the Ranji Trophy. Samant too has his objective clear and his sight set on the title. Above all joys of winning the prestigious cup, he wants to win the Ranji Trophy title primarily so that he can get a second-year contract.

Other than the history of having won the title 41 times - 33 more than the second best - the fear stems from Mumbai's recent trend of changing coaches who fail to win the title. In the last six years, he has become Mumbai's fifth head coach. The only coach to have got a second year was Chandrakant Pandit, who led the side to its previous title triumph in 2016. The side went to the final again the next season but finished runner-up, and Pandit was sacked from his role.

Samant knows that straight up. "My focus will be to win the Ranji Trophy," he says. "Once I can help the team win the title, my appointment for the next year will become easier."

As much as Samant disagrees, he has a core group at his disposal. And he admits that making too many changes to that without winning a title will be difficult. And among his ambitions, one of them is to develop a battery of pacers and spinners and keep them ready for the coming seasons.

"Right now, I can't say push for what I want unless I deliver results. In my first year, there are unlikely to be many changes as I will need to prove before getting the faith (of the selectors and management). At best, right now, I can add a few pacers and spinners to the camp. So this year, I will hunt them and keep them in the camp. I will work with them on the mental and physical aspect of their game so that I can prepare them and keep them ready for the next season."

But his biggest challenge still lies with the current squad, which in his words is 'short on confidence' following their poor show last season, none more hurting than the quarterfinal defeat against Karnataka in Ranji Trophy. Samant believes his first job with the side will be to help them get back their confidence.

"Sports is all about confidence. The morale is low right now. The team that is there is unsettled right now. The confidence that they had till last year, is lost after the quarterfinal loss. I have spoken to the support staff and a few players. So my job is to help them get back that confidence."

The squads that reached the finals in 2016 and 2017 had a regular faces showing up for most games. However, injuries and promotions had left the side depleted last season, especially the pace attack. While Tushar Deshpande, Balwinder Sandhu and Dhawal Kulkarni struggle due to injuries, Shardul Thakur was called up for national duty. The new entrants shined in patches but largely failed to create an impact. Samant believes, in his new role, the issues with injury need to be addressed quickly.

"To manage injuries will be another challenge - to handle it and to minimise it," he says. "A fitness camp will begin soon and after that we will assess what tournaments we need to play ahead of the season. I need to ensure that the pacers and all-rounders don't get injured and are able to play the full season. So I need to come out with a programme in managing these players."

While winning the Ranji Trophy remains the larger goal, the former 'keeper will also need to address Mumbai's drawbacks in the limited-overs format. From being a strong side across formats, Mumbai have fallen a great deal in T20s and 50-over tournaments. It isn't as much about their cricket deteriorating as much as it is about their inability to keep up with the progress of the others sides in the country. Samant feels Mumbai has failed to match up with the rest mainly because of their bowling and fielding.

"The issue is in the bowling department. We are lacking in accuracy. I will be looking to help the bowlers develop variations as also ensuring that they are more accurate. I want to see bowlers develop variations with accuracy.

"In fielding, we are dropping catches and missing run outs. It could either be because of lack of fielding practice or over practice."

He has expressed uncertainty over Abhishek Nayar returning to the Mumbai side, after being dropped mid-way through the season last year. However, he believes, if Nayar comes back, he will remain a key member in his role for the side, apart from mentoring the youngsters and helping them gain confidence.

"If he's in the team, he will definitely have an important role to play as he is a senior player. My job will start with helping the team improve their confidence. If Nayar is there, he will help the team develop that confidence internally. My job will be to help them develop that confidence from the outside - give them the right practice, work on their mental toughness, etc. In case he isn't there, someone else will have to play that role - like Suryakumar (Yadav), Shreyas (Iyer) or (Aditya) Tare."