"4 MI players are going with the Indian team and none of them could celebrate their selection" - Aakash Chopra on Mumbai Indians' IPL 2024 loss to LSG
Aakash Chopra has noted that none of the Mumbai Indians (MI) players picked in India's squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup had a field day in their franchise's IPL 2024 clash against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
MI posted a below-par 144/7 after being asked to bat first in Lucknow on Tuesday, April 30. KL Rahul and company then chased the target down with four wickets and as many deliveries to spare to climb into third position on the points table.
Reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra noted that Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah gave underwhelming performances for the Mumbai Indians.
"Rohit Sharma's last four birthdays have been like one, two, three and four. He has played five balls in each of his last four birthdays and has scored one, two, three, and four, which is very unfortunate, but he has been unable to score runs. Wickets kept falling one after the other," he said (1:30).
"You feel surprised and slightly shocked about the sort of cricket Mumbai are playing. Suryakumar Yadav got out down the leg side. Then Tilak Varma got run out. Hardik Pandya - first-ball duck. Four MI players are going with the Indian team and none of them could celebrate their selection," the former Indian opener added.
Chopra noted that Nehal Wadhera, Ishan Kishan, and Tim David's fighting knocks weren't good enough for the Mumbai Indians.
"Rohit Sharma scored four runs, Suryakumar scored 10-12 runs, Hardik Pandya got out for zero off the first ball and Bumrah didn't pick up a single wicket. Nehal Wadhera and Ishan Kishan scored a few runs but that was never going to be enough. Tim David also hit later," he observed.
Wadhera (46 off 41), David (35* off 18), and Kishan (32 off 36) were the only MI players to score more than 10 runs. While Hardik fell for a golden duck, Rohit and Suryakumar contributed a paltry 14 runs between them.
"They have to blame themselves" - Aakash Chopra on the Mumbai Indians' below-par batting
![The Mumbai Indians lost wickets whenever they looked to force the pace. [P/C: iplt20.com]](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2024/05/3524b-17145438302171-1920.jpg?w=500)
Aakash Chopra noted that the Mumbai Indians batters should be blamed for their defeat.
"You scored only 144 runs in total. As the saying goes, you can't defend the indefensible. It was that story. Runs weren't there at all on the board. They have to blame themselves because they have such a long and formidable batting lineup. It seems like they would be destructive and incredible," he reasoned (2:40).
The renowned commentator added that the famed MI batting lineup hasn't lived up to expectations.
"However, we got to know one more time that the game is not played on paper but on the ground. The team that was looking the strongest on paper before the tournament has disintegrated. They haven't played well at all, the wagon hasn't moved," Chopra noted.
On the bowling front, Chopra claimed that Hardik Pandya lacked sharpness with the ball although he took two wickets. He added that Jasprit Bumrah hasn't been as potent in MI's last three games as he was at the start of the season.