Former South Africa and RCB batter AB de Villiers pointed out one key area of concern for an otherwise extremely well-rounded Mumbai Indians squad, as he argued that Trent Boult’s gradual decline could prove to be a spot of bother for the five-time IPL champions.
While Mumbai have a powerful squad with world class quality in every area of the pitch, particularly with domestic excellence led by Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Suryakumar Yadav, there are a couple of small weaknesses that opposition teams might look to target.
While spin bowling has been a recent area of concern, New Zealander Boult is not the same force he once was – and this is something that could hurt Mumbai, argued de Villiers.
Previewing the IPL on his YouTube channel alongside Abhinav Mukund, de Villiers pointed out that Boult had lost a yard of pace, which could make him less efficient in the powerplay and the death overs.
“The one worry for me is Trent Boult. It’s similar to Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] situation, where he has lost a yard,” explained de Villiers. “He is not as spicy as he was from 2018, 2019 and 2020, even earlier, 2015.”
“He was clocking in low 140s, really swinging it late because of that fiery wrist he got, but he’s maybe pulled back like a yard and he seems to be more expensive over the last while that I have watched him play over at SA20,” explained the former wicketkeeper-batter.
Boult’s mediocre numbers in SA20
Representing MI Cape Town in this year’s SA20, Boult was only able to take 8 wickets in his ten matches, showing that he had lost some of his wicket-taking edge of years gone by, which had often settled key matches for MI. To make matters worse, Boult’s economy had ballooned to 9.82 in this tournament, going against his ability to keep things quiet even if the wickets weren’t coming.
Boult has been a reliable performer for MI, particularly in playing second fiddle to the excellence of Jasprit Bumrah: in having two gun fast bowling options, MI were often able to control vast stretches of games, targeting the opposition’s best batters with arguably the two best new ball bowlers in the sport.
However, with things changing for Boult, de Villiers claims that this could instead prove to be a weakness unless well-handled in 2026.
“Maybe that’s an area where they feel they have a lot of insurance there, but I feel maybe it’s a false sense of security. It could be an area some of the opposition batters will target,” concluded the legendary T20 batter.
MI’s campaign begins at home at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, 29 March, where they take on Kolkata Knight Riders.