Mumbai Indians have been going through a really torrid phase in this year’s IPL as the five-time champions have achieved an undesirable feat of being the first ever team to begin their campaign with seven consecutive defeats. Being placed at the bottom most position in the points table, MI are yet to open their account in IPL 2022.
Although they have had their moments in most of the games, Mumbai Indians have failed to jump the ultimate hurdle of winning the match. If we analyse, we can find several reasons responsible for such a horrendous losing streak of MI, as mentioned below.
Failure of the opening pair
Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan form one of the finest opening pairs in the IPL. But, unfortunately, the two Indian stars have failed to live up to the expectations of the team so far.
The average opening partnership of MI has been found to be 26.42, which suggests the underperformance of this lethal pair. If we exclude the games against DC and RCB, Rohit and Ishan haven’t formed a single partnership of more than 35 runs in the mega event.
Rohit has been absolutely ordinary, averaging less than seventeen this season. On the other hand, Ishan, despite having a great start to the tournament, has struggled to get going in the recent matches. Statistically, the southpaw averages 31.83 and has a substandard strike rate of just 116.46.
With MI not having the services of Hardik and Krunal Pandya anymore, a lot of work was supposed to be done by these two mainstays of their batting unit. Their abysmal returns have certainly made it difficult for their already inexperienced batting line up to make an impact in most of the games.
Incompetency of the bowlers other than Bumrah at the death
As we know, MI spent eight crores on Jofra Archer in the mega auction, sacrificing the quality of their bowling attack. This is exactly what has cost them pretty much in IPL 2022. They bought the likes of Daniel Sams, Basil Thampi, Jaydev Unadkat and Tymal Mills as their first-choice seamers. These guys have blown hot and cold in the tournament so far. Their bowling in the slog overs has been nothing short of abysmal and has proved to be costly for Mumbai Indians. Let’s have a look at the table below, which signifies the difference between these bowlers and Jasprit Bumrah in the last 5 overs of the game.
| Overs bowled | Runs given | economy | |
| Bumrah | 8.2 | 74 | 8.88 |
| Rest MI bowlers | 19.3 | 271 | 13.89 |
Daniel Sams went for 57 off his four overs against DC, that included a 24-run over which snatched the victory from MI’s claws. Jos Buttler smashed Thampi for 26 runs in a single over in a game that MI lost by 23 runs. Mills conceded 54 runs off his three overs against LSG, which MI lost by 18 runs. Similarly, Unadkat went for 23 runs in the eighteenth over against Punjab and couldn’t defend seventeen runs in the last over against CSK. It indicates that these bowlers have always been targeted by the opposition batters to score against, as they plan to play out the four overs of Bumrah taking marginal risk.
Questionable selections
Some strange selections have also played a part in MI’s downfall this season. They have given chances to the likes of Anmolpreet Singh and Ramandeep Singh, but Sanjay Yadav is still warming the bench. Yadav is known to be a pretty decent all-rounder in T20 circuit. Statistically, he has scored 494 runs at an average of 27.4 and a strike rate of 124.1 in domestic t20s. Also, with his useful spin bowling, he has 16 dismissals to his name at an economy of mere 6.65. These numbers are much better than those of the aforementioned players. Further, they took a long time to introduce the Australian speedster Riley Meredith in spite of the repeated unimpressive performances by Tymal Mills. These things indicate that Mumbai Indians aren’t using some of their good players in the best possible manner.
With seven defeats in as many games, MI’s hopes of qualifying for the playoffs are almost done and dusted. They should regroup and play with a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude from now onwards. They have to play for their pride and wait for the arrival of Jofra Archer to make a difference next season.
