5 reasons why Mumbai Indians are in a real mess

Mumbai Indians, with their ignominious 6-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings last night, have now gone winless in their first 4 games of this season’s Indian Premier League (IPL), just as it was the case last time around.The one-time IPL winners are yet to get going across all departments of their game, as they all have faltered in one game or another: in the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, it was their poor fielding that let them down after Rohit Sharma and Corey Anderson had helped them to a respectable score of 168; against Kings XI Punjab in their second fixture, it happened to be their batting lineup that fell like nine-pins to the potent Kings XI’s bowling attack.In the subsequent match against Rajasthan Royals at the Motera, it was a mixture of poor batting upfront and the ineptitude of the bowling attack to pick wickets despite keeping Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith quiet for long periods; against the Super Kings, it is probably the bowling lineup, which has to take the blame for MI’s poor display, after Kieron Pollard, Rohit and Ambati Rayudu helped their side pile-up 183 on the board after starring down the barrel at one stage when the scorecard read 15-3.With this Mumbai Indians side not playing like we know they are capable of, what are the 5 reasons that have put the Ambani-owned franchise in doldrums at almost the quarter-way mark in their IPL campaign?

#1 The Indian contingent has yet to deliver

The Indian players in the Mumbai Indians’ squad have flattered to deceive so far. The Vinay Kumars, the Parthiv Patels, the Pawan Suyals, the Aditya Tares, to name a few, have made very little to no contribution with either the bat or the ball.

Vinay, who led Karnataka to their second-consecutive Ranji trophy title this past season, has failed to add potency to the bowling attack, conceding 98 runs and picking up just 1 wicket in the 12.3 overs he has bowled in the tournament so far. Suyal’s figures have been even more worrying, as the left-arm seamer has conceded 95 runs in the 10 overs and failed to pick up a single wicket. Parthiv and Tare have contributed 16 and 14 runs, respectively, with the bat in the 2 games they have played in. 

You take Rohit’s contributions against KKR and CSK out of the equation, and no other Indian player in this MI squad has come up with a performance of substance, though Harbhajan Singh’s 64(24) with the bat against KXIP cannot go unnoticed. 

If the Mumbai Indians are to turn their season around, it is the Indian players who have to step up immensely and, personally, I am not sure that will happen.