Home discomfort for Mumbai
Home-bred players were their strength till last season but they have struggled in Mumbai Indians’ wobbly middle order
LONDON: Mumbai Indians are in a mess. They have played 10 matches in the 2021 Indian Premier League, winning only four, leaving them floundering in the lower echelons of the table in seventh place. Only a hapless, end-of-cycle Sunrisers Hyderabad are below them in the standings, and as the business end of the group stage comes into view, it seems increasingly likely that the most successful team in the league are staring at a group stage exit.
From a structural perspective, the areas of concern are obvious. They have started well with the bat, scoring quicker than anyone else in the Powerplay, only to fall apart immediately after. In the middle—overs 7-15—they have scored at 7.3 runs per over, the sixth best in the league, while losing wickets quickly which means they have scored at just 8.5 rpo at the death, the worst of any team.
MI’s vaunted destructive pivot has not delivered when it matters most.
They have struggled with the ball too, despite Jasprit Bumrah’s consistent brilliance. The death over economy (10.2rpo) has been the second worst for any side; the only side with a worse Powerplay strike rate than Mumbai (36), is Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Teams have bad seasons, that isn’t news. A couple of bad results while you’re wrestling with your team balance, a few players losing form—it’s all normal. The issue for MI is that they had reached a point where there was no reason for them to not dominate across the board. Their auction work in 2018 had left them with an outstanding, balanced core, with one of a handful of Indian death hitters partnered with arguably the best death hitter of all time, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard acting as a pivot from which it is very hard to create a bad XI. Their Indian player group is so high quality that the overseas players they recruit can be specific role players, the very best in their chosen quality. A left-armer to swing the new ball is a consistent preference, but beyond that they have filled in gaps wherever they have arisen. This season, that hasn’t particularly changed. The issue for the Mumbai Indians has been, well, the Indians.
With the bat, that falls on the shoulders of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan. The Mumbai middle order has graduated to being the Indian middle order, and with it appears to have come a drop in form. In 2020, both of them averaged over 50, scoring at more than 8.5rpo— reliable, rapid sources of runs. In 2021, neither is averaging over 20, and while SKY’s rate of scoring has held up reasonably well, Kishan’s has fallen off a cliff, below 6rpo for his last eight innings in blue. Last season they were a flexible, effective bridge from the opening pair to the death hitters. This year that bridge has collapsed.
Hardik Pandya hasn’t bowled a ball in his last 22 IPL matches. There’s no question that Hardik’s destructive hitting is more than capable of standing on its own, and to an extent his bowling is a bonus—but it’s a bonus which kept MI elite. Knowing that in almost every game you can rely on four rock solid overs from your top seven keeps sides balanced, and MI have had that and a fair bit more. Hardik’s fitness issues have put more emphasis on Krunal Pandya’s bowling, and that’s not gone well. Last season, Krunal was able to average 60 plus with the ball and it did not unduly affect MI’s chances because everything else was going smoothly. It was never sustainable. The drop off in the other areas of the team has brought Krunal’s ineffectiveness to the fore.
Trent Boult being an average T20 bowler has also swum into view. His long-term middling record fell by the wayside in 2020, boosted by the fact everything else was working in Mumbai’s world, but this season he’s caused issues. His lack of Powerplay wickets—just four in 10 matches—is the most obvious drop off, but his performance at the death has been catastrophic, recording an economy rate of 11.3rpo despite being MI’s second most used bowler in that phase. Boult is not an elite T20 bowler, and with the comfort blanket of a smooth-running attack removed, he’s been shown up.
In amongst all that, there have been obvious bright spots. Bumrah has been outstanding as always, despite a slightly higher than usual economy of 7.8rpo. Rohit Sharma has been his usual dependable self with the bat, averaging over 40 at an acceptable 7.7rpo. Pollard has still been charging along at 9.2rpo, adding that impetus at the end of the innings, but it’s impetus which has carried MI to par, rather than far beyond it. In a team like Mumbai whose success has been built on one or two standout players and everyone else performing a role, when the role players fall away, you’re left with a hope, but not much more.
Mumbai are not out of it. With four matches to go, they probably need four wins to guarantee qualification outright, but they probably only need three to be in with a fighting chance. They play Punjab Kings on Tuesday, then their last three matches are against Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, and Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH and PBKS are not good sides, and should be there for the taking, and RR are barely on the level above. Calm heads, some emphatic victory margins to boost the NRR, and Mumbai should still be right in amongst it. But for those in the Wankhede think-tank, the main cause for concern is not how to get out of this mess, but how they got into it in the first place.