Hyderabad: Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra feels that multiple reasons are contributing to the Mumbai Indians' struggles this season, making it impossible to pinpoint a single reason saying they were slightly impatient with their bowlers in the ongoing 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Mumbai Indians currently sit at the bottom of the points table, with only four wins and eight points from 13 games. This is despite having one of the best batting lineups and arguably the best bowler of the tournament. Mumbai started poorly, losing their first three games consecutively. They briefly raised fans' hopes by winning back-to-back games, but then lost momentum and managed to win only two of their next eight matches.
When asked what went wrong for Mumbai Indians this season, is it the captaincy, lack of depth in the bowling department or lack of form of the players, Aakash Chopra said, "There are multiple reasons actually, impossible just to pinpoint one. Initially, Suryakumar Yadav's unavailability and that makes a huge difference. If he is on a song, the world looks like a very different place. The batting was firing in the first 5-6 games, but then it just completely collapsed where they were losing more wickets than any other team in the powerplay."
MI have lost 25 wickets inside the powerplay overs, the second most, in the IPL 2024 after Delhi Capitals' tally of 28 scalps while managing to pick only 21 wickets, third least. They have conceded the second most (94) fours after DC who are at the top with 112 boundaries.
"Then of course the bowling itself, but that was not due to lack of resources. If you have Gerald Coetzee, Nuwan Thushara, Akash Madhwal, (Jasprit) Bumrah, Piyush Chawala and (Kwena) Mphaka, yes it may not be the best bowling lineup in the world, but it's not very poor either. They leaked, too, many runs, it comes across as a slightly weak bowling unit, but it is a collective failure I'll say and they have failed on more counts than one and therefore they are where they are."
Aakash, who has become the face of Hindi commentary, also mentioned that cricket is a team game and it needs a collective effort to secure a victory giving an example of Orange Cap (who amassed the most runs in the season) and Purple Cap (who picks the most wickets in the season) winners for the team.
"It's either a team fails or a team succeeds. So, when the team succeed, we don't say it is because of the captain, bowlers or batters. In fact, they have had only one Orange Cap holder that is Sachin (Tendulkar) in the last 17 years or may not have a Purple Cap winner except Malinga once, but it still got five titles. So, it is the team that works or the team that fails."
There is only one instance where Mumbai Indians players have won Orange Cap and Purple Cap each. Former skipper Sachin Tendulkar amassed 618 runs to win the Orange Cap in 2010 while their current bowling coach Lasith Malinga (28 wickets) is the only player to clinch the Purple Cap.
"I do feel that they were slightly impatient and that can happen when you don't start winning. They started with Luke Wood and I think it was a very good choice, but then just after the first game, they went to (Kwena) Mphaka and then, just after a couple of more games, they went away from Mphaka and went somewhere else. Then you feel that a little bit of impatience just creeps in a little bit too early," Aakash answered when asked about the move of roping in the 17-year-old South African Kwena Mphaka for Dilshan Madushanka, who has been ruled out of IPL 2024 due to an injury.
Jasprit Bumrah (13) is the only bowler, who has played all the matches so far for Mumbai Indians in the ongoing season. Gerald Coetzee and Piyush Chawla are the second on the list with 10 games while Thushara and Nabi are third with six games each, followed by Akash Madhwal (5), Romario Shepherd (4), Shreyas Gopal (3), Anshul Kamboj (2), Kwena Mphaka (2) and Luke Wood (2).
"It's a chicken and egg theory and it goes like this, a stable team, leads to success, or success leads to a stable team. And the fact is that you need a stable team and you need a stable unit, you need a stable bowling lineup for the team to succeed, but sometimes it is just the other thing around. Because when you are winning then you carry on with who you are or who you have. So, it's a tough one, but yes they were a little impatient with just jumping from one to the other, to the other very quickly because the bowlers were not firing," he added.
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