'A lot of moving parts' - MI coach Keightley reflects on patchy season

The batters being put under pressure and not always being able to handle it has been a big contributor to what has been a disappointing WPL 2026 for Mumbai Indians (MI) so far, head coach Lisa Keightley, who replaced Charlotte Edwards in the role after three seasons of making the finals and winning twice, said.

MI entered the tournament with a clear plan at the top: Hayley Matthews paired with G Kamalini as a settled opening combination. That plan unravelled before the season even began when Matthews suffered a quad injury in training, prompting an immediate reshuffle.

The disruption deepened some way into the competition when Kamalini was sidelined with a finger injury. By the end of eight matches, MI had cycled through four different opening pairs, never quite finding the stability that had made them hugely successful for three seasons.

"Injuries and sickness to two of our key players was tough," Keightley said after their fifth loss of the season, the latest also a first, against Gujarat Giants (GG) on Friday. "We had to find combinations and probably do a few things a little bit different. We've probably struggled to get that momentum into our season and obviously being put under pressure early and losing matches was not ideal. We just couldn't get those combinations and partnerships to get the momentum going within our tournament, which is disappointing."

S Sajana, one of their makeshift openers, was originally pencilled in to be a finisher. After beginning the tournament with a momentum-changing 25-ball 45, Sajana was moved up the order to fill the Kamalini void to partner Matthews. She managed scores of 10, 9, 7 and the 25-ball 26 she made on Friday in MI's unsuccessful chase of 168, which has left them uncertain about making the Eliminator.

Barring the one half-century, against RCB, Matthews has struggled too, much like Amelia Kerr, their other overseas opening option. "It's tough when you're missing a world-class opening batter. It's hard to replace. I don't think it's been any different for MI from the first three years to this year," Keightley said. "The key players are key players in most teams.

"And it's just how you build your squad around that and the domestic players step up. We just had a lot of moving parts, like Sajana, to be totally honest. We picked her to bat at six and she started the tournament fantastically and did the role so well. And it was just unfortunate we had to make a few adjustments after Kamalini's gone home.

"But to her [Sajana's] credit, she was really keen to try and go out there and do the best for the team. It's not easy going out facing world-class bowlers in this competition. She was really doing team first and trying to do the best for the team and get the job done as well as she could.

"She put in a lot of work at training to make sure she prepped well to give herself the best chance. So it was nice for her to get some runs today. If she could have gone a little bit longer, I thought it would have been a really good reward for all the hard work that she's done over the last couple of weeks."

MI got what they wanted at the toss - chasing a score. But 167 eventually proved 11 too many, with the chase at one point all on Harmanpreet Kaur because of a brittle, perhaps even non-existent lower-middle order.

Sanskriti Gupta, the allrounder, had batted just once previously in the competition despite featuring in every game. Poonam Khemnar had faced just one delivery despite playing all the games, and Rahil Firdous had faced none in two matches.

"The message was Amanjot [Kaur] had to go and take a little bit of pressure off Harman and she tried," Keightley said. "And then Harman knew the end was going to be two big overs and then see what they have left with the last over, try and get it to something achievable.

"But to Gujarat's credit, they bowled really well. Harman was set. You know she's very good at doing those situations. But they had really good plans and bowled well enough, basically just too good for us today."

Keightley pointed specifically to overs 15 to 17 in the GG innings, where MI conceded 36 to Ash Gardner and Georgia Wareham, as the turning point.

"That was a big shift," she said. "I thought we had it under control up until then. And I knew is they'd have to go very soon and it was probably going to be after drinks. That was probably the difference with the bat, I think, that two-over shift."

All is not lost for MI. They may yet have a chance to sneak into the playoffs through the back door. For that they need UP Warriorz to beat Delhi Capitals.