In what was overall a strange mega auction for Mumbai Indians ahead of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League, one of the recruitments that they were praised for was that of Singapore-born Aussie power-striker Tim David.
After featuring in the XI at the start of the tournament for two matches, where he scored 12 and 1 against Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, Rs 8.25 crore-signing David was left out in favour of South African youngster Dewald Brevis.
But back in team now for the last couple of matches, David has shown what he was always thought to be capable of, providing some fireworks at the death. His latest innings was a 21-ball 44* against table-toppers Gujarat Titans on Friday.
In the final equation, David’s cameo was a big factor in MI winning the match.
After the team’s defeat earlier against Lucknow Super Giants, Rohit Sharma was specifically asked about bringing David back into the XI.
“Everyone has come into discussion given how our tournament has gone,” Rohit had said.
“We’ve got to make sure that whoever is playing in the XI, we give them enough games because at the end of the day you want a settled team. No matter what is happening on the field you can’t look at the other option unless the guy’s played a few games because they need to settle down.
“(It’s) relatively a very new team so their roles, what they do for different teams, when they play for their country, it’s different. When they come here, we expect something different from them so keeping that in mind we need to make sure they get enough chances and opportunities.
“We tried not to make too many changes … but when you lose games there’s always discussion about who can come in and who can go out. As far as I’m concerned, I want to make sure whoever plays gets enough opportunity to prove themselves.”
But that response only seemed a bit contradictory to the fact that MI had dropped David without giving him enough chances in the first place, especially on occasions when the team was not completely utilising their overseas quota or their foreign players often struggled.
On Friday, after David’s innings, the reactions on Twitter largely centred around the MI think-tank’s handling of the destructive batter:
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