Mumbai Indians were the defending champions last year and followed it up with a win in the champions league. But, the roads have not been so rosy this year and they are 2nd bottom in the rankings now.They could not even manage to win a single game in the first leg of the IPl. The team has got a highly experienced coaching staffs , when considered the fact that they have Ricky Ponting, Sachin tendulkar and Jonty Rhodes in their line up. The main reasons are:
Team selection: IPL auction was a shocker for the Mumbai Indians as they decided to leave out Maxwell from the team . The other shock was the exclusion of Smith. Both Maxwell and Smith have so far been the match winners for their respective teams.
Poor batting: Mumbai Indians still have a decent batting line up, but their batting has not clicked. Pollard did not fire in the initial stage of the tournament and it left too much on others. Dinesh Karthik was missed in the middle order. Rohit Sharma could not flourish toward the end overs. Batting was never a problem for them but in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, it seems they dont have a leader of the pack
Corey’ failure: Corey Anderson was a buzz before the auctions of the IPl and Mumbai managed to grab him, leaving behind Maxwell and Smith. But this lad from New Zealand has not been able to replicate his international performance into the IPl. He has not been able to contribute with the ball either, having not completed his full quota of 4 overs, more often than not.
Pragyan Ojha’s dismal bowling: In this year of IPL , most of the matches have been on the low and slow pitches and thus the role of the spinners become important. Harbhajan has been good but Ojha has not find his right length. He has gone for many runs and thus it has cause instability to the team.
The team management need to rething of it’s strategy and get well on track . Their chances of making it into the knock out stage of the tournament is almost over and they may well like to make full use of the bench strength. It’s important to forget this and move forward and prepare for the next tournament.