IPL 2024 vs 2022 - which was the worst season for MI? 

The Mumbai Indians ended a rather poor season in the Indian Premier League when they were beaten by visitors the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 17, Friday.

This was their final encounter of the 2024 season, and saw them being relegated to the bottom of the league standings, with a mere eight points inside their kitty. They won four and lost ten games this season.

This was highly unbecoming of MI given that they have been one of the most successful franchises in the tournament along with the Chennai Super Kings, having won five titles. However, what also rankles is that their last came in 2020 - four seasons ago.

MI wanted to change that and aim for their sixth title this season, and brought in former player Hardik Pandya from the Gujarat Titans to lead them by paying not an insignificant transfer fee.

However, the move backfired, as supporters of the franchise left them in hordes given the way it treated former skipper Rohit Sharma, who led them to those five IPL titles in order to make room for Pandya.

While Pandya did not garner the fans' support with his move back to his former franchise allegedly solely driven by money, he did barely anything on the field to change the wave in his favour.

In the end, MI lost out on achieving something spectacular with so many high-profile players in their ranks, and ended up as the wooden spooners for the second time in three years.

The same had taken place in the 2022 season when they ended up in the last position, and a lot of blame had been accumulated on the way the franchise was operating.

The 2023 season had proven to be an exception to the current norm when they qualified for the playoffs, won the Eliminator but were knocked out by eventual finalists Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2.

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MI lost their first eight games of in IPL 2022

In the 2022 season, MI had begun in the worst possible fashion, losing their first eight games, only to resurrect their boat somewhat and end up with four wins to bag eight points.

It was only in their ninth game, against Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai that MI's batters showed some spine and stood up to be counted by their oppressors.

Suryakumar Yadav struck a timely half-century coming in at number three to help his side chase down the target of 159, and this win seemed to give them confidence enough to defeat eventual winners Gujarat Titans by 5 runs next.

However, the Kolkata Knight Riders came to Navi Mumbai and buried MI, in a manner of speaking, in their next game by bowling the latter out for a measly 113 while chasing 166, and by then, their hopes for qualification were done and dusted.

A couple of consolation wins against old rivals CSK and the Delhi Capitals spread across a mauling from the SunRisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede gave the team management enough reason to think about what went wrong.

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IPL 2024 brought back the ghosts of the past for MI

Rohit Sharma was removed as MI captain ahead of IPL 2024. [IPL]

The 2024 season did not seem as ominous as the 2022 one for MI, given that they lost only their first three matches (one of which included a record total scored by SRH) before winning against DC at the Wankhede.

In fact, to go with the hat-trick of losses, it was the widespread criticism that Pandya's appointment as captain generated that was making the headlines for MI earlier this summer.

A massive win over Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bengaluru followed an unlikely loss to CSK before they bounced back strongly by beating Punjab Kings in their own backyard in Mullanpur.

All seemed well until this point, when MI went through a four-game losing streak, and they still appeared to have some chances of pushing for a qualification berth when they defeated a red-hot SRH at the Wankhede.

However, a further couple of defeats to KKR in a rain-afflicted game (famous for the way Sunil Narine got bowled to Jasprit Bumrah first ball by merely letting a straight delivery go) and LSG in their final encounter sealed the deal for them.

If one were to draw a comparison chart, it would be easy to say that the 2022 season was by far the worst that MI have had in their storied career in the IPL. They got thrown out of the party in 2024 merely for arriving late, whereas in 2022, they did not seem to have arrived at at all.