Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings have bowling issues to sort out
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma is just 25 away from becoming only the seventh batter to score 10,000 T20 runs
Alagappan Muthu
12-Apr-2022
Big picture
So. Mumbai Indians. It's not been great. But let's think *points to title of this section* here. Four losses in four games vs five IPL championships.
This is potentially the greatest team in T20 history. But they needed five years to get there. Good things take time and in that time there will be pain. The idea is to find a way to endure it and still keep moving forward. Mumbai can do that by focusing purely and simply on their players.
Imagine how good Tilak Varma will be in 2023 after a whole season's worth of facing some of the best bowlers in the world. Same goes for Dewald Brevis. He's only 18 years old and already plays shots like AB de Villiers.
Mumbai don't need to win this IPL. Punjab Kings, on the other hand, could really do with a little shiny in their trophy cabinet. To that end, they've assembled a fearsome line-up of hitters, with Liam Livingstone starting to get the kind of pull that somebody like Chris Gayle used to. The only problem is the bowling keeps letting them down.
In the news
Rohit Sharma is 25 runs short of reaching 10,000 runs in T20 cricket. He will be the second Indian - after Virat Kohli - and seventh overall to reach the landmark. Should he score 25 more, he will also end his second-longest run without an IPL fifty (12 innings) since moving to Mumbai in 2011.
Likely XIs
Mumbai Indians: 1 Ishan Kishan (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Dewald Brevis, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Fabian Allen, 8 M Ashwin, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Tymal Mills, 11 Jaydev Unadkat/Basil Thampi
Punjab Kings: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 3 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jitesh Sharma, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Odean Smith, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Arshdeep Singh
Strategy Punt
Since IPL 2020, while batting as an opener, Ishan Kishan has never been dismissed in the powerplay. Taking him out early will be crucial to Kings' chances and so they might entertain the idea of matching him up with Rahul Chahar. Legspinners have accounted for three of the Mumbai opener's last four dismissals by a slow bowler.
Stats that matter
- The average first-innings score in Pune this IPL has been 173 for 6, and while teams winning the toss have always chosen to bowl, they haven't always won the match. The split is actually a very even 2-2.
- Mumbai and Kings are leaking way too many runs way too easily as evidenced by their economy rates - 9.41 and 9.13, the worst in the league.
- Since IPL 2017, Kieron Pollard has the highest strike rate (219) and the second-highest average (100.70) among all batters who have scored a minimum of 250 runs against Kings.
- Kings have been dominating the powerplay. Their run rate (10) in this phase of play is the best in the league. However, at the backend (overs 17-20), they've only been scoring at 10.57 per over, which is the third-worst out of all teams.
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo