Rohit Sharma has failed to shine apart from the one good knock against KKR © BCCI
With three losses out of four games, Mumbai's start to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 season closely resembles the starts they had in the previous two editions. In the 2014 season, Mumbai's record was L.L.L.L.L.W in their first six games while in 2015, they started with L.L.L.L.W.L in their first few matches before gaining momentum.
One of the the main reason for Mumbai Indians' shoddy start has been their inability to identify the right combination and the injury to Lendl Simmons came as a further dent.
Rohit Sharma, Simmons, Parthiv Patel, Jos Buttler, Mitchell McClenaghan, Hardik Pandya, Martin Guptill - that's as many as seven batsmen that Mumbai Indians top-order has juggled with in their last four games. Of the lot, only Rohit and Rayudu have registered fifty+ scores. That Rohit scored 84 in the one game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), out of the total of 103 that he has so far, means that the skipper too hasn't been as consistent as he would have hoped for.
After Simmons, who played only the first game, was ruled out of the tournament Parthiv and Rohit opened twice, while Guptill replaced the skipper in their previous game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). In their matches so far, Mumbai Indians have had only one half-century stand for the opening wicket - 53 against KKR - while the rest of the opening partnerships have all been single-digit scores.
Hardik Pandya was tried at No. 3 for three matches in a row and all he could manage were scores of 9, 9 and 2. Rayudu's promotion to three in the previous match was a sound decision as the 30-year-old, playing his 100th IPL game, registered his 12th 50+ score, seven such coming while batting at the one-drop position. Apart from the half-century, Rayudu also came up with a couple of fighting 20s, following top-order collapses. With an ability to anchor the innings and shift gears as and when required, Rayudu, who has been with Mumbai Indians throughout his IPL career, seems the best fit at the No. 3 position.
Ricky Ponting, the Mumbai Indians coach, has an explanation for the disparity in the numbers. "The problem with our line-up in the last few games, especially with Rohit deciding to open the batting, we didn't really have a specialist number three batsmen. Even international players like Pollard or Buttler, we wanted them to bat in a position where they are accustomed to. Buttler bats at number five for England and Pollard usually bats at number five or six for his country. So, we didn't have a specialist number three batsman. Rayudu also has excelled when he has batted at number 6. He has won games while batting for us there. So we didn't want to shake that up and we gave Hardik a chance at number 3."
However, Mumbai Indians do have problems when it comes to other batting positions. Buttler, who has been used at No. 4 and No. 5, hasn't made much of an impact, barring his blistering knock of 41 off 22 deliveries against KKR. Pollard, in the three matches that he has batted - twice at No. 6 and once at No. 5 - has failed to go past one. That the likes of Harbhajan Singh and Krunal Pandya have had to come up with quick-fire cameos to propel the team to totals of some respectability does not augur well for Mumbai's top-5, who between them have only scored 365 runs in the four matches. That's an average of 91.25 per game.
Buttler's continued inclusion has meant that Corey Anderson, who has scored 379 runs in the IPL and averages close to 32 with three half-centuries, is still waiting for his turn in this current edition. Ponting, however, justifies the selection of Buttler and hints that the England wicketkeeper-batsman might get an extended leash. "Buttler was out early in the first game but played a match-winning innings in the second game. I think he was unlucky to get out in the last two games. So he hasn't had much luck. He is a match winner. We have seen in the T20 World Cup and we will definitely stick with Buttler for a while."
The coach, however, does not rule of the possibility of Anderson featuring in the upcoming games. "Corey is a very good player but we cannot fit all those middle-order batsman into the one side. MI's success over the years has been having two foreign fast bowlers in the side and to play the two foreign fast bowlers, you got to take a call on who the two batsmen are going to be and we've made the call that both Buttler and Pollard probably suited the roles that we required in our team, more so than Corey Anderson did. But we know that if Buttler or Pollard happen to not be playing to their potential, then Anderson can come in and dominate the IPL as he has shown in the past."
Amongst the totals that Mumbai Indians have posted or chased so far, only once have they crossed the 150 mark in this edition. The top-5's combined contributions in the totals of 121, 188, 143, 142, are 46, 177, 60, 82 respectively. Percentage wise, that's 38.02, 94.15, 41.95, 57.74 for those four games, and if the two half-centuries are discounted, then the top order's contribution seems even more meagre.
A horses for courses policy is something that most teams have employed, and it is no different with Mumbai Indians. However, that has also meant that there has been constant shifting and changing of positions, be it at the top or the lower order. Ponting agrees with the fact that the various changes could be one of the reasons for Mumbai's indifferent start to the season.
"If you look back to the last half of last season, when we were winning a number of games in a row, we didn't really change the combination much at all. The team remained pretty much the same. A lot of it (changes) have been forced as well, with the way we've tinkered and made changes for this tournament so far. But ideally, as a coach and captain, you don't want to be making many changes," says Ponting. "You want all your guys fit and available for selection, and when you pick them, hopefully the role that you give them to play, they play that for you. But if they can't play that role, then you got to look at other guys that can come in and play certain roles."
A settled line-up is that which gives most teams early momentum at the start of the tournament. That Mumbai Indians have not been able to identify one, especially with the batting order, has been the main reason for their poor beginning in IPL 2016. How soon they identify the players and what roles they would best fit into remains to be seen, but doing so quickly would be at the top of their wish-list at present.
The captain and the coach have time and again stressed that Mumbai would rather not pull off late miracles like they did in the last two seasons. But, going by how their current season is progressing, such a scenario might come into picture again, and this time, it may turn out to be third time unlucky.
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