5 reasons why Mumbai Indians are in a real mess

Mumbai Indians, with their ignominious 6-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings last night, have now gone winless in their first 4 games of this season’s Indian Premier League (IPL), just as it was the case last time around.The one-time IPL winners are yet to get going across all departments of their game, as they all have faltered in one game or another: in the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, it was their poor fielding that let them down after Rohit Sharma and Corey Anderson had helped them to a respectable score of 168; against Kings XI Punjab in their second fixture, it happened to be their batting lineup that fell like nine-pins to the potent Kings XI’s bowling attack.In the subsequent match against Rajasthan Royals at the Motera, it was a mixture of poor batting upfront and the ineptitude of the bowling attack to pick wickets despite keeping Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith quiet for long periods; against the Super Kings, it is probably the bowling lineup, which has to take the blame for MI’s poor display, after Kieron Pollard, Rohit and Ambati Rayudu helped their side pile-up 183 on the board after starring down the barrel at one stage when the scorecard read 15-3.With this Mumbai Indians side not playing like we know they are capable of, what are the 5 reasons that have put the Ambani-owned franchise in doldrums at almost the quarter-way mark in their IPL campaign?

#1 The Indian contingent has yet to deliver

The Indian players in the Mumbai Indians’ squad have flattered to deceive so far. The Vinay Kumars, the Parthiv Patels, the Pawan Suyals, the Aditya Tares, to name a few, have made very little to no contribution with either the bat or the ball.

Vinay, who led Karnataka to their second-consecutive Ranji trophy title this past season, has failed to add potency to the bowling attack, conceding 98 runs and picking up just 1 wicket in the 12.3 overs he has bowled in the tournament so far. Suyal’s figures have been even more worrying, as the left-arm seamer has conceded 95 runs in the 10 overs and failed to pick up a single wicket. Parthiv and Tare have contributed 16 and 14 runs, respectively, with the bat in the 2 games they have played in.

You take Rohit’s contributions against KKR and CSK out of the equation, and no other Indian player in this MI squad has come up with a performance of substance, though Harbhajan Singh’s 64(24) with the bat against KXIP cannot go unnoticed.

If the Mumbai Indians are to turn their season around, it is the Indian players who have to step up immensely and, personally, I am not sure that will happen.

#2 The bowling attack has lacked a genuine wicket-taker

Continuing on from the last point, Pawan has played in 3 of the 4 games and Vinay has featured in all the 4 games, but together have picked up just 1 wicket in almost 23 overs, which explains why Mumbai Indians haven’t been able to defend scores of 168, 164 and 183 against Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Super Kings, respectively, so far in the tournament.

Harbhajan Singh is the leading wicket taker in MI’s squad, as the Turbanator has picked 5 wickets and conceded 102 runs in the 12 overs he has bowled.

Lasith Malinga’s form has been the most worrying aspect of MI’s season so far, with the unorthodox Sri Lankan quickie picking up 4 wickets but his economy rate has been close to 9 runs per over, having conceded 142 runs in the 16 overs he has bowled. Malinga has been the backbone of Mumbai’s bowling attack over the years, but his inability to get his yorkers right and bowl a stump-to-stump line has seen Brendon McCullum and Steve Smith, in particular, score boundaries at will against him.

Jagadeesha Suchith, the orthodox left-arm spinner from Karnataka, has bowled well in patches, but failed to be a good replacement for Pragyan Ojha, who hasn’t played since featuring against the reigning IPL champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, on the opening night of the season.

With Josh Hazlewood opting out of the tournament at the end of Australia’s 2015 world cup triumph, it begs to wonder who is going to come up with the wickets for Mumbai, whose bowling attack is absolutely toothless.

#3 The think tank seems to have not done its homework in the build-up to the tournament

With their season in absolute tatters, you cannot help but think what the Mumbai Indians’ team management did in the build-up to this edition of the IPL, which began on the 8th of April. Both John Wright and Anil Kumble, the former head coach and bowling coach who were critical to Mumbai winning their first IPL title and following it up by winning the Champions League T20 in the 2013 season, are not part of the coaching personnel, and have been replaced by Ricky Ponting and Shane Bond as the head coach and bowling coach, respectively.

Therefore, you could give them the benefit of the doubt for not yet identifying the right playing XI, especially in not discerning the ideal Indian players to give the side the balance they require. But, having said that, there can be no excuses for the shambolic displays we have seen so far.

I felt that Lendl Simmons, who played his first game of the season only yesterday against Super Kings, should have been a certainty in the playing XI right from the first game, considering his exploits last season which ensured Mumbai Indians didn’t miss out on a playoff place for a 5th consecutive season. Also, the bowling lineup should have been thoroughly thought-out, as the over-reliance on Malinga wasn’t going to do any favors to the two-time CL T20 winners.

It remains to be seen whether Ponting and company have learnt their lessons, and what sort of a combination they go in with when they travel to Bengaluru to take on Royal Challengers Bangalore tomorrow at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

#4 The squad has mediocrity written all over it

Snapping up Aaron Finch from Sunrisers Hyderabad was an astute piece of business from Mumbai Indians, who otherwise haven’t made significant changes to their lineup that failed to put up a good defence of the IPL and CL T20 titles last season. Though the batting order has a good look to it and played a starring role in their side scoring over 160 in 3 of the 4 games, with the likes of Rohit, Anderson and Kieron Pollard playing really well and scoring 2 half-centuries each, the bowling lineup has nothing fearsome about it to suggest that it can defend totals or keep sides from scoring less than 170 when bowling first.

The likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Gopal, who did well during the last IPL season and picked 5 and 6 wickets, respectively, to go with an economy rate of 8, have played just 1 game each and didn’t play well during their respective outings.

Such a case in point explains the pedigree of the Indian players in this MI squad that is very less compared to other franchises, and I just think that this squad doesn’t have the necessary ingredients to recover from the position they are in currently.

#5 Mumbai Indians have had the toughest start of all 8 IPL franchises

It is a straightforward observation from the fixtures Mumbai Indians have played in so far, playing 3 of the 4 sides that finished in the top 4 at the end of the league phase last season. And, in retrospect, all those 4 teams have played to profile, bringing out the shortcomings of this Mumbai Indians’ side that, however, has looked mediocre on its own.

Having said that, we could get a better idea on this aspect in the coming days and weeks, when Mumbai play the likes of Royal Challengers, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad who have made underwhelming starts to their respective IPL campaigns too.

If Mumbai Indians are to come up with a massive turnaround, they will have to improve in all three departments – batting, bowling and fielding – of the game. The batting, considering Pollard’s consistency, Rohit’s swagger and Anderson’s innate big-hitting ability, does look good and will inspire them in the upcoming weeks of their IPL campaign. However, the bowling, as was mentioned earlier, doesn’t look good and with Malinga, in particular, struggling to bring his A-game to the fore, the MI think-tank will have its work cut out.

Overall, at the moment, it looks all doom and gloom for Mumbai Indians and their sea of supporters.