IPL 2019: 3 reasons why Mumbai Indians could struggle this year
The grand carnival of T20 Cricket, the Indian Premier League is here again. The 12th season of the competition is upon us and the eyes of the nations are on the event. Despite the event being held in the shadows of the World Cup, there is considerable excitement in cricket lovers for the tournament.
As always, Mumbai Indians come into the tournament as one of the heavy favorites to lift the trophy. The experience of the three-time Champions in winning the event, along with a strong core group of players; will always make them one of the biggest contenders to go all the way. A look at their squad this year will show that they are one of the most balanced teams in the competitions with a lot of quality players in the squad.
However, despite these factors, Rohit Sharma's team still has a few problems to worry about. Here are a few factors that could hamper Mumbai Indians' chance of success this year.
#3 Dependency on aging players
In this season's auction, Mumbai Indians were one of the quiet teams in the room. Quite uncharacteristically, they did not make any major signings in the auction. Despite not reaching the playoff in 2018, the franchise surprisingly did not significantly change their team.
Their two biggest buys of the season were Yuvraj Singh and Lasith Malinga. It is no secret that both of them are in the twilight of their career. While Malinga is a prominent member of Sri Lanka's World Cup plans, it is quite clear that he is not going to feature for the entire competition.
His absence for the first six matches has already been confirmed and it is possible that he might not stay till the end too. Further, Malinga has had multiple injury problems over the last two years and is definitely not at the top of his game. While he has performed impressively since his return for Sri Lanka, he is not as reliable as a few years ago.
With the obvious risk of him breaking down at any time, the unavailability of Jason Behrendroff and injury to Adam Milne, this does not look like the smartest investment by Mumbai Indians.
The same can be said for Yuvraj Singh. In last year's IPL, he only scored 65 runs in eight matches. It was quite clear that the 37-year old looked completely out of sorts and not even a shadow of the player he once was. In fact, the Punjab all-rounder has never been at his best in this competition.
Despite playing for five different teams, Yuvraj's record of 2652 runs in 128 matches is not at all impressive for a player of his caliber. He has never scored more than 380 runs in a single season. Considering all these factors, it is hard to say that the left-hander will really improve the fortunes of the team.
The three-time Champions have also retained the services of Kieron Pollard. The swashbuckling West Indian is another player who looked past his prime last year. One of the most loyal players in the franchise history, Pollard only scored 133 runs in 9 matches last season.
While all three of them will add invaluable experience to the team, if they fail to improve their form, it could create a lot of problems for the team management.
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