Every team has played nearly six matches now, and it has been an exciting tournament till now with many close shaves. We have seen some of the best T20 innings, especially David Miller: who single-handedly took GT(Gujarat Titans) home against CSK. Newcomers like Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants(LSG) are sitting comfortably at the top four with four and five wins respectively(out of six) with Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, but the biggest let-down has been Mumbai Indians’ performance.
With no wins in six games, they are at the bottom after six games. With eight more games, it is do-or-die in every match and a miss in any game would be curtains for them.
It may not be pleasing to MI fans, but the situation is very simple: Win every game from now. Well, this may not be impossible but it is a herculean task. Sometimes, you leave yourself with too big a mountain to climb and that’s precisely what MI has done.
It may not be pleasing to Mumbai indians’ fans, but the situation is very simple: Win every game from now.
People may argue, that MI has done it in the past then why not this time? Well, this is possible and there is a realistic chance of achieving that, but it does look difficult with the current Mumbai Indians squad. Many of their star players are out of touch, including Rohit, Ishan Kishan, and Kieran Pollard. It might be harsh to say this, but Kieran Pollard doesn’t even deserve to be in playing eleven. His form has been so ordinary that even Murugan Ashwin could hit a six whereas, he couldn’t in the final over against Dushmantha Chameera(LSG). And every bowler excluding Bumrah has been pedestrian: Jaydev Unadkat did show some promise in the last two games, but it has been a story of “too little, too many times”. One of MI’s biggest strengths over the years has been their fielding, which has been unacceptable this year. They are badly missing Hardik Pandya’s outfield presence, as so many catches have gone done.
In T20 cricket, you need at least one top-four batsman to score fifty or hundred, to allow the lower order to go for bang at later stages but MI top four has been below-par with none setting the foundation. Rohit Sharma has perished to rash shot every single game, while Ishan Kishan has been poor. MI is badly missing the services of Quinton and Hardik Pandya.
Tymal Mills looks a great bowler but he is struggling; especially at the death. Even in the spin department, MI looks powerless. Murugan Ashwin has been mediocre in the middle overs and Fabian Allen needs to vastly improve if he intends to trouble in T20 cricket against Indian batsmen.
When the matches venue was announced, MI was the favorite; considering all the matches were played on their home turf, but the home advantage has turned out to be their biggest disadvantage because they don’t have a single in-form power hitter. Kieran Pollard’s weakness has been brutally exposed, with all the bowlers bowling outside the off-stump, giving him no chance to muscle the ball. Cricket experts may not be too harsh on him, but the position in which he plays, he needs to have 360-degree shots. At present, he just pulls or plays straight or cover drives.
the home advantage has turned out to be MUMBAI INDIANS’ biggest disadvantage because they don’t have a single in-form power hitter.
Some of the new players haven’t risen to the occasion as well, with old players like Rohit, and Pollard unable to impact any games. Rohit’s captaincy has been below-average this time, and many of his decisions like Keeping Bumrah for death has backfired.
It may seem a hard pill for MI fans, but it would take some individual brilliance from either Rohit or Bumrah to take this team to the play-offs but it does look highly unlikely now. Although the result seems pretty clear, it’s cricket; and we need to watch the game to decide the results.
