Despite two consecutive defeats in IPL, Mumbai Indians are known for their comeback. Rohit’s batting and Bumrah-Boult’s bowling are strengths, but the expensiveness of other bowlers and Hardik’s captaincy are weaknesses. The next match is important against RCB.
Mumbai: “Morning will come, the sun will rise again.” After the defeat against Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya ended his speech with these words. The tournament started with victory, but now the team is continuously losing. After defeating Kolkata Knight Riders in a one-sided match, Mumbai had to face defeat against Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals without much fight. Despite two consecutive defeats, there was no disappointment in Hardik or his team. There was no such nervousness which was seen in the dugout of Chennai Super Kings. So will Mumbai Indians make a comeback, or should they be considered weak?
Mumbai Indians have been called ‘slow starters’ in IPL for years. History is witness that making a comeback is not an impossible task for this team which has won the title five times. This time also the situation is similar. If we look at the teams below in the points table, Mumbai is at seventh place, Kolkata is at eighth, Gujarat Titans is at ninth and Chennai is at tenth.
Kolkata’s problem is that after Ajinkya Rahane, Finn Allen and Angkris Raghuvanshi, their batting becomes weak and the bowlers are also not in form. The situation with Gujarat is also similar, they are very dependent on their top-3 batsmen, even though their bowlers are world class. Talking about Chennai, their batting line-up is struggling with form, only Sarfaraz Khan is giving some relief. Chennai bowlers have also failed to stop runs in all the matches played so far.
This is where the story of Mumbai Indians becomes a little different. Talking about batting, Rohit Sharma is not far behind in the race for Orange Cap. Rohit reminded of his old days against Kolkata and Delhi. Ryan Rickelton and Suryakumar Yadav have also scored half-centuries. Naman Dheer and Sherfane Rutherford have also played short but effective innings. After the first three matches, Tilak Verma’s form is the only matter of concern.
Now let’s come to bowling. Hardly anyone would doubt the ability of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult. In the match in which Kolkata batsmen were scoring runs at a run rate of 11, Bumrah’s economy was only 8.8. The way Bumrah and Boult bowled tightly in the middle overs, it was they who brought Mumbai back into the match. Mitchell Santner, Ghazanfar and Shardul are also playing their roles as wicket-taking bowlers. The only drawback is that Shardul and Deepak (Chahar) are not stingy in giving away runs.
Shardul or Chahar are not able to maintain the pressure that Bumrah and Boult create on the batsmen in the subsequent overs. Wickets are being taken, but runs are not stopping, due to which the momentum built on the opposing team is broken. Another major shortcoming is visible in Hardik’s captaincy. The biggest example of this was the match against Rajasthan Royals.
Hardik handed the ball to Shardul to bowl the last over, while Trent Boult, considered a death over specialist, had one over left. Rajasthan batsmen scored 18 runs in that over of Shardul. The question is whether the slow and wide yorkers could not have stopped Boult, Jaiswal and Hetmyer? Mumbai’s next match is against the formidable Royal Challengers Bangalore. If these matches are not won, then the problems for Mumbai may increase further.