They could see it coming from a mile away – Mumbai Indians and their fans knew that they were in big trouble as soon as Rohit Sharma was dismissed.
Shakib-al-Hasan lobbed one up for the MI skipper. It had a nice dollop of the right kind of tempting and Rohit shaped up to drive the ball through the cover. Only one problem with the idea – his feet didn’t move at all. The ball pitched and spun away, taking the edge on the way to first slip.
Rohit stood there, leaning on his bat for a moment that must have seemed like an eternity to him, shocked. He couldn’t believe what he had done but he also knew that the chances of MI winning the game had gone down drastically.
From that point on, MI were fighting an uphill battle – one that was best characterised by Hardik Pandya playing out a maiden over from the resurgent Rashid Khan.
Tactically, the 2018 campaign has been a disaster for the Mumbai Indians and it is now that their humongous coaching staff must earn their keep. Mumbai’s task from this point is not going to be easy – they will need to win every match and hope that other results go their way.
It has happened before but for it to happen again, Mumbai need to make some major tactical changes to the way their batting works:
Drop Pollard, bring in Duminy
The big West Indian has, pretty much, been a spectator this season. He has played all six matches, scored just 63 runs and not bowled a single over. He has never provided solidity to the middle order – but on his day he could be a match winner. However, if he isn’t bowling then are Mumbai better off with a regular batsman?
They already have Hardik Pandya to use the long handle if required, so perhaps it would make a lot more sense to bring in JP Duminy. He is a left-hander, he can hit it big and is technically much better than Pollard. As things stand, this is a no-brainer.
Rohit back as opener
The whole point of having Rohit in the middle order is to have someone who the others can bat around. If Duminy comes into the mix, then MI can have him at four and push Rohit back to his preferred opening position. Suryakumar Yadav drops to three and Ishant Kishan goes to five.
Rohit needs his time to get going, he isn’t a Suresh Raina. But once he does get set, he can be much more dangerous than Virat Kohli or Kane Williamson. As opener, Rohit can take his time getting set and once he is set, we all know he can rifle through the gears in no time.
Krunal is your finisher
As things stand, Krunal Pandya is batting higher up than he should because MI apparently need a left-hander. But he isn’t your middle-order bat. He is your finisher. He bats with a fair degree of calm – not MS Dhoni levels – but good enough to close games well. And that is where he was at his best.
Having him bat at five – putting him ahead of two big-hitters (Pollard and Hardik) means that MI consistently adopt an all or nothing approach.
Mumbai’s bowling has been doing a decent enough job on most days but they have been badly let down the batting and these tactical changes may help them get back on track. It’s either that or a long rest for most of them.
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