Mumbai Indians, one of the successful franchises in the history of Indian Premier League are struggling hard this season and yet to claim a win. They are placed in ninth position after four consecutive defeats. In three games, they batted first and then the bowlers failed to defend the score. The most surprising one came against Kolkata Knight Riders. Pat Cummins hit the joint fastest fifty of the IPL history and stanched away the win from Mumbai Indians.
The match against Kolkata was an unfortunate one for Mumbai. Despite the determined stay of Venkatesh Iyer, it would not have been possible without the stunning cameo of Pat Cummins. However, one unfortunate loss does not make up for all other defeats. Mumbai Indians have a good batting line-up and the inclusion of Suryakumar Yadav in the KKR match made it strong. Ishan Kishan has been in a good form with another youngster Tilak Varma contributing time to time. Lots of their hopes will be on Kishan, Varma and Dewald Brevis, the youngster who is hailed as ‘Baby AB’, and Mumbai Indians should invest on them looking at the future.
Rohit Sharma’s form is concerning and it is putting pressure on other batters like Kishan and Yadav. The side also seems to lack the bunch of good all-rounders it used to boast of. They seem to miss the service of Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya. Kieron Pollard is still one of their trusted all-rounders, but the lack of spark is clear and questions are being raised on whether retaining him in place of Hardik was a good move or not.
When it comes to bowling, Mumbai Indians used to have one of the strongest bowling line-ups of the league. They retained Jasprit Bumrah but had to get rid of the likes of Trent Boult and Rahul Chahar. The pressure on Bumrah is immense and the expectation is high too. Earlier Mumbai Indians had spinners of calibre of Harbhajan Singh and Rahul Chahar. This time they roped in Murugan Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu bowler has been performing decently thus far but is still short of controlling the middle-overs against good batting line ups. Mumbai Indians looked excited to have Jofra Archer in the squad during auction but obviously they would have to wait for the England pacer’s service. To sum up, Mumbai Indians are lacking the balance they used to be famous for in the Indian Premier League.
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