Mumbai Indians, the champion team with all the international stars. Many of them are capable of winning games on their own. The power and destructive capabilities of that team, no one in the IPL has that. They can easily chase a score in excess of 200 or can easily set a similar target for the opponents. Yet, the form of Mumbai Indians is worrying. It is certainly not because they have lost a lot more than they have won but it is because the cream of the Indian middle and lower order is in that team and they are not contributing.
Rohit Sharma is the only batsman in the top run getters during the ongoing IPL 2021. Even then, he is at the eighth position with just one 50 in 9 games. It is understandable because after having spent more than a few months in the tough environs of England and performing creditably, Rohit is bound to be tired if not exhausted. It is the rest of their batsmen who are real cause of concern.
The 3 struggling players
Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Surya who are likely to form the cream of the middle order is really struggling. Ishan Kishan after a blazing start to his international career, has had few quiet games. Though these are early days in his international career and him being young, he still has the potential to turn talent into performance at the highest level. That is not the point. In the ongoing IPL, he has scored just over 120 runs in 8 games. He has batted at number one position. So he cannot claim that he did not have the time to build the innings because invariably Mumbai has lost an early wicket this season.
Unable to play on slow wickets
It is no coincidence that his poor run of form has occurred when the wicket is slow. Ishan is good if the wicket is absolutely flat. If the wicket is slow, he really is unable to rotate the strike. As a result, he tries to play the lofted shot. With the wicket being slow, he is not always able to time the ball perfectly and ends up giving an easy catch. His solution to get out of a slow scoring phase is to be ultra-aggressive. This will not work all the time on slow pitches.
Surya Yadav on the otherhand, has had a wonderful introduction to international cricket. He is not young but he has potential and will be an asset to the team. He seems to be having lots of time and more than a few strokes for every delivery. Some of his innings in Sri Lanka, though he failed to score a hundred, was pure class. Both for the nonchalant ways he played the shots and for sheer confidence. Surya is someone who has suddenly blossomed into a fine player. If he could achieve 75% of what Hussey achieved, he would have done well.
Even he is having a horror run so far in the IPL. 10 runs short of 200 in 10 games with just one fifty. These are not the numbers of a batsman who is in form and on whom the future depends.
Hardik must decide whether he values playing for the country?
Rahul Chahar is not expected to play any part in the World Cup and hence, his failures is not of any concern but Hardik Pandya, on whom so much has been invested, is a major concern. I have written this before. Hardik has somehow lost interest in playing for the country. This is not at all good because so much has been invested on him. He used to be better at rotating the strike but now, he seems to have forgotten that part. All he tries to do is stand and just swing the bat. If the ball is in that arc and in the line of the swing, he gets lucky and ball sails over the boundary. Otherwise, he struggles. Off late, it has become quite easy to contain Hardik and he gives away his wicket out of sheer frustration.
If 3 of the top 6 is struggling, that leaves a lot on the shoulders on Kohli, Rohit and Pant. In a T20 game, no team can afford to carry 3 passengers. The number of overs is less and as such the batsmen will be expected to hit the ground running. There is some hope that Surya will be able to turn his form around but Ishan does not seem to be tough and Hardik is a lottery. Perhaps, Ishan lower down the order will be better used.
Selectors still have a chance to change the team
None of these struggles would have mattered an ounce if it were not for the upcoming T20 World Cup. Mumbai Indians winning the tournament or otherwise, I am not even bothered about that. The World Cup will be held in UAE where the wickets will be slow. Have the selectors blundered by picking a couple of rookies? The selectors still have time to change the team that was announced a couple of weeks ago. Looking at the form of 3 MI players, probably it will be better to pick one or two of Shreyas, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank or even Dhawan.
It remains to be seen whether the selectors will stick to the original squad or will they make some changes as they see fit. If Ishan, Hardik & Surya continues to fail in the remaining 5 games for the Mumbai Indians, change must be made. There is no point in taking journeymen to the world cup when the team is already short of batsmen. There is a ready replacement for Hardik in Shardul. Remember, there are 8 bowlers with 5 spinners, two of whom will never get to play even one game. This is Kohli’s final chance to win a T20 world tournament and Ravi Shastri’s final assignment. Everyone from the board, the selectors to the team will do well to give them the tournament win they deserve.
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