Mumbai Indians, the 5-time IPL Winners had a terrible season. During the Mega Auction 2022; they invested in young blood in the form of Dewald Brevis of South Africa, Tim David of Singapore-Australia, etc. But they failed to invest in Indian players. Earlier MI had the pedigree of Indian players present in the form of Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya.
Surprisingly, they didn’t retain nor went to buy Krunal who has a history of being a consistent performer for MI over the last 3-5 years. Hardik had a horrendous Vivo IPL 2021 so it was obvious that MI Owners and Management weren’t interested in him. The absence of the Pandya brothers meant that Kieron Pollard had more responsibility on his shoulders.
There are a lot of factors that made this Season of 2022 a forgettable one which are as follows:
- Failure of Opening Duo Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma
The million-dollar baby of Tata IPL 2022 (*approximately 15 Crores) didn’t perform according to his credentials. There were high expectations from him to give MI a dashing start but he succumbed to the pressure. Captain Rohit Sharma has a history of taking time before giving berserk and the poor form of Ishan meant that MI was in tatters. The scorecard of both the players in matches was as 3 runs scored in 15 balls which is not acceptable at this level where you cannot afford any hiccups.
Kishan scored 418 runs in 14 matches which included 3 half-centuries but his form returned at the back end where MI’s journey was done and dusted. It looked like Rohit was a bit overcooked from responsibilities as he is the only skipper who has won 5 titles and a sudden revamp didn’t go well as expected. Rohit has said a lot of times in interviews, that he requires time before going bang-bang. Earlier Rohit and Ishan had formed a commendable partnership and did a formidable job and had won Dream 11 IPL 2020. A Champion team must have a good opening partnership of at-least 30 runs which was seen missing for the majority of the tournament.
- Over-reliance on Suryakumar Yadav
Suryakumar Yadav tried his best to take the team out of the muddle. He didn’t get ample support from the rest of the batters like the newbies’ Tilak who had a decent outing with the bat. There were high expectations from the SKY, but that didn’t mean that he has to do the bulk of the scoring.
Surya Kumar Yadav is a vital cog for MI as well as for Indian National Cricket Team. There were many instances in which MI required 60 odd runs in 6 overs, yet they failed to score the runs. At the back end of the tournament SuryaKumar got injured and then all of a sudden there was a big hole in the middle order for MI. All in all, the right-handed batter didn’t get the ample support from the rest of the betters otherwise Mumbai Indians would have at least finished their leg stage at Number 6 or number 7 position
- Out of Form Kieron Pollard
West Indian destructive batter Kieron Pollard had one of the worst seasons with the bat. There was always going to be added responsibility on his shoulders in the absence of Krunal and Hardik. In the middle of the tournament, he all of a sudden announced his retirement from International Cricket. In all this Chaos, his weakness against spin was exposed as literally a spinner was introduced by the Captain and Pollard wasn’t able to get off the strike and was playing a lot of dot balls.
He managed to score 144 runs with an average of 14.40. The situation got so much worse than MI management had to drop him. He was bowling and all over for MI and was taking wickets which was the reason why MI backed him for so much longer period. Before taking any bold decisions, MI should not forget that he has played match-winning Knocks in 2013, 2015, and in the 2019 IPL Finals. All in all, Cricket Expert Ian Bishop has mentioned that Pollard has to reinvent his game and bat according to the situation rather than playing defensively.
- Under-utilization of Tim David
The Singapore Australian better played only a couple of matches at the start of the tournament and then later am I management dropped him without stating the actual reason. At the second half stage of the tournament, MI gave him another chance and he was brilliant at the death overs where he smashed Mohammed Shami and all-star bowlers. He smashed 4 sixes against Natarajan and made a statement that he is too good a player to be sitting on the bench.
In the recently concluded match of Mi vs DC once again he showcases his credentials by playing a match-winning cameo of 34 runs in 11 balls. Dropping Tim David proved to be too costly, as who knows MI would have made it to the play-offs or would have shown a better fight. By dropping him, MI sabotaged their campaign and faced one of the Worst Seasons in their Proud History.
He is the find of the Franchise cricket where he plays in leagues like PSL, Hundred, CPL, BBL, etc. Some cricket experts have already started to comment that the team divide is ready for an Australian call-up for the upcoming T20 World Cup. All in all, Cricket Australia would have an eye on him as no team until now has defended its title in ICC T20 World Cup.
- Over Confidence Attitude from MI
History is evident that MI are slow starters they lose 2 to 3 Matches and then make a comeback. This year the attitude was such that like Rohit Sharma said in a post-match presentation that they can still make it to the playoffs after losing 6 matches on the trot. No doubt you should have a never to say Die attitude but that doesn’t mean that you neglect the bad performances and hope that everything would be right.
There is no doubt that whenever MI loses 4-5 matches then it’s alarming signs that they may clinch the title as it has happened in 2015 when they flabbergasted everyone. That season was under the Head Coach Ricky Ponting where MI fired all the cylinders.
- Lack of Indian bowlers
Jasprit Bumrah was bowling out of his heart and making sure that he is at least picking 2 to 3 wickets in every match. On the other side, the rest of the bowling lineup was getting thrashed as the bowlers present were Daniel Sams and Mills who weren’t that effective at the level of IPL.
In the Mega Auction, they made a huge blunder by buying Jofra Archer which everyone knew that he won’t be able to take part in the full tournament nor the half. Recently England Cricket Board released a statement that Jofra won’t be able to play in the entire summer of 2022 which means that his return to International Cricket once again got prolonged.
Mayank Markande should have been given more chances when had made his debut in 2018 against their arch-rivals CSK. It’s high time that MI Owners change their Coaching Setup as Mahela, Shane Bond, and a lot of members are associated with the team for more than 5 years; due to which the players chillax and have a comfortable environment. The last two years haven’t been productive for MI Franchise where they haven’t made it to the playoffs.
MI owners and management should focus and emphasize Indian talent rather than buying overseas players. The likes of Unadkat who is highly experienced weren’t able to win the matches for MI in crunch situations. All in all, better planning and execution are required on and off the field from MI owners in the next season as there would be another mini auction that can change the fortunes of one of the most successful teams (*5 Time Winners).
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