Mumbai, April 16:
A struggling Mumbai Indians will be desperate to resurrect their Indian Premier League campaign while bracing for Rohit Sharma’s possible absence against a rampant Punjab Kings here on Thursday.
Rohit hobbled off the pitch after hurting his hamstring during MI’s previous clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru here last Sunday.
Even as he missed training on Tuesday, Rohit went through a light training session here at the Wankhede Stadium on the eve of the match on Wednesday, doing some jogging and had a short stint in the nets against net bowlers and throwdown specialists.
While it remains to be seen if the former skipper is available for the crucial clash, Mumbai Indians would nevertheless need a collective effort to come out of the mire they are in.
For a squad which promised to have all bases covered before the IPL began, Mumbai Indians have largely had an underwhelming campaign even after they won their tournament opener for the first time in 13 seasons.
Since their most recent loss, MI camp can be trusted to have gone back to the drawing board in order to overcome their powerplay woes which has been one of the biggest factors so far.
Including a rain-truncated game against Rajasthan Royals which had 3.2 overs of powerplay, Mumbai Indians have taken a mere three wickets in the crucial phase of the first six overs in four matches.
Jasprit Bumrah has been spot-on when it comes to containing, but the Indian pace ace has surprisingly gone wicketless in four matches so far. With a seam bowling attack, which also has the experienced Trent Boult and Hardik Pandya, the returns have been minimal.
Even with the bat, MI have not gone full throttle in the powerplay where some of the on-song teams have tried to make the most of the field restrictions to give their teams a launching pad.
For Mumbai, the inability to accelerate early on has invariably pushed a chunk of pressure on the middle-order including Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, who too have largely disappointed.
While the India T20I skipper still has a half-century to show, runs have dried up for Tilak who has notched up scores of 20, 0, 14 and 1 so far.
The unavailability of English all-rounder Will Jacks, who had a successful T20 World Cup in February-March, is another issue for Mumbai Indians.
Mumbai Indians would feel it is not the case of lacking requisite personnel but their ability to execute, which has resulted in three losses in a row.
On a benign track against RCB, MI bowlers regularly fed balls to be dispatched into the stands while their batters, owing to an ordinary powerplay, could not press the matter later.
Both the spinners, Mayank Markande and Mitchell Santner, were punished for missing their lengths on each occasion, but the latter was eventually able to pull things back in control in the following overs.
Like last season, Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab Kings have once again emerged as the team to beat in the competition. While MI seem to be stuck in the process at the moment, PBKS have been one of the frontrunners, especially in going all out with the bat, enjoying the high of smashing 93/0 in the powerplay in their previous outing against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya form a dangerous pair, while Iyer’s assuredness along with Cooper Connolly’s arrival has strengthened PBKS further.
On the bowling front, their spearhead Arshdeep Singh has not been at his best, conceding 149 runs off 84 balls in the four games thus far with only a couple of wickets to show for.