"He’s not worth blowing nearly your whole salary on" - Shane Watson feels MI paying the price for spending ₹15.25 crore on Ishan Kishan for IPL 2022
Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson reckons that the Mumbai Indians (MI) got it horribly wrong by spending ₹15.25 on Ishan Kishan at the IPL auction in February. Terming Kishan a highly talented cricketer, Watson opined that the move forced them to compromise on the overall quality of the squad.
MI retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard ahead of the auction before buying back Kishan at the mega auction. The five-time champions have had a woeful run in IPL 2022, losing their first five matches in a row. In fact, they remain the only franchise yet to win a single match this season.
Speaking on "The Grade Cricketer", Watson said that he was least surprised by Mumbai’s struggles in the competition. The Delhi Capitals’ (DC) assistant coach opined:
“It hasn’t surprised me that MI are at the bottom of the table because they had a shocking auction. Spending so much money on Ishan Kishan… He is a very talented and skillful player, but he’s not worth blowing nearly your whole salary on. And then, going for Jofra Archer, not knowing whether he is going to come back in. He hasn’t played cricket for quite a while. They have got quite a few holes in the team.”
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Mumbai began their IPL 2022 campaign with a four-wicket defeat at the hands of the Delhi Capitals (DC). Subsequently, they have lost to Rajasthan Royals (RR), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS). MI presently find themselves rock-bottom in the standings and have a mountain to climb if they want to progress to the playoffs.
“They don’t have a quality overseas quick” - Shane Watson analyzes CSK’s woes in IPL 2022
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Apart from MI, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the second-most successful franchise in the T20 league, have also been struggling. They have only registered a solitary win so far, which came on the back of four successive losses.
Scrutinizing CSK’s below par performance in the matches held till date, Watson termed the weak pace bowling as their biggest concern. He elaborated:
“The biggest issue with CSK, now that I have seen their five games, is that they have got a hole, especially with their fast bowling. In the previous years, they had Shardul Thakur. Deepak Chahar is injured. They paid a lot for him at the auction, but he is (likely to be) unavailable for a lot of the tournament, which is a big hole. They don’t have a quality overseas quick like Josh Hazlewood. Earlier, they always had a world-class overseas quick bowler. That’s why they are struggling.”
Chennai opened their account in IPL 2022 by defeating RCB by 23 runs in their previous match at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. They are currently ninth in the standings with just two points.