This season’s IPL is past its halfway stage and Mumbai Indians are still in quest of their first points as they line up against Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium here on Saturday.
With eight starts having resulted in eight reverses, the season has been a dismal one for the five-time champions.
Mumbai Indians will need a giant effort to pick themselves up from the canvas and deliver the goods against the Royals who are in a good position to make the playoffs with 12 points to their credit, six of those accumulated in their last three games. Things have gone horribly wrong for MI so far, but they do have the ability to overcome whatever is thrown at them by the Royals.
Collective failure
It has been a collective failure for Mumbai Indians whose main batters, especially openers Rohit Sharma, the skipper, and big buy Ishan Kishan have just not been among the runs as expected.
There has not been enough penetration in power play by the bowling unit too. “It’s very simple. We have not performed as a team. What we’re looking at is how we can rectify the situation and probably finish on a really good note,” said the team’s batting coach Robin Singh ahead of the match.
‘Kishan will bounce back’
Wicketkeeper Kishan had started off well with an unbeaten 81 against Delhi Capitals and 54 against Royals before falling off.
“We’ve addressed a few things that we feel that he [Kishan] can improve on. As you know, he started very well. But he fell away a little bit.
“We sort of revisited the entire tournament, addressed a few things and are hoping he’ll get back the same sort of form that he started with,” Robin said.
Robin was confident that skipper Rohit will be back on top of his game.
“I think like Ishan Kishan, we have addressed what he [Rohit] needs to do. As an individual and as a senior batsman, he knows his responsibility. So that is something he has put his hand up for and I’m pretty sure he’ll come back very strongly.”
The Buttler factor
Royals have cashed in on the stupendous form of opener Jos Buttler in their journey to the second spot on the points table.
Buttler is one run shy of touching the 500-run mark and has struck three tons, the first of which floored Mumbai Indians on April 2 at this venue.
A lot will depend on how effectively Mumbai Indians deal with the England batter—at the top of the Royals order—and leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (leading wicket taker this season with 18 victims) in the middle overs of their own innings.
Chahal had two for 26 in his four-over spell when the two teams had met earlier in the season.
