Mumbai Indians’ Report Card for IPL 2022: Miscalculated, mismatched, and many more

05/28/2022

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The 15th edition of the IPL saw Mumbai Indians – the tournament’s most successful side – rooted at the bottom of the table. They failed to build a potent squad at the mega auction around Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard, and due to that, the results were inevitable.

Over the years since Rohit Sharma took charge, Mumbai Indians (MI) boast of having a fearsome bowling attack. Riding on that, the Paltans have enjoyed resounding success, winning five titles in the last nine years. However, the year 2022 was drastically unusual for them.

The MI think tank, led by Mahela Jayawardene, recognised Jofra Archer as the one for the future at the last mega auction. Archer was not available for IPL 2022 due to injury concerns but yet, they splurged on him. Interestingly, they did not acquire any specialist well-known spinner, which was nothing but the biggest surprise from their side.

Of course, Ishan Kishan has been MI’s beloved boy, and he was brought back from the auction at the record-breaking INR 15.25 crore. Thus, all they could bring to support Bumrah were some average pacers, along with some inexperienced spinners.

The negative results were definitely on the cards. But still, ahead of the season, no one could have predicted that they would lose all their opening eight matches. Then they finished off the season with some positivity, winning four of their last six matches. That includes a heart-break to Delhi Capitals, which helped Royal Challengers Bangalore reach the Playoffs, only to be beaten by Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Qualifier 2.

Let us discuss how the MI players fetched in IPL 2022:

Batting - B+

From 14 matches, the star-studded MI batting unit could only aggregate 2,100 runs in IPL 2022. Statistically, it was the second-lowest (after Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 2,084) among the ten franchises. Neither Rohit nor Kishan could get them off to a flyer on a consistent basis, and the rest happened as it was bound to have happened.

MI’s top-run getters in IPL 2022:

Ishan Kishan | 14 innings | 418 Runs | 120.11 Strike Rate

Tilak Verma | 13 innings | 375 Runs | 130.21 Strike Rate

Suryakumar Yadav | 8 innings | 303 Runs | 145.67 Strike Rate

Rohit Sharma | 14 innings | 268 Runs | 120.18 Strike Rate

Powerplay - C

With Rohit and Kishan at the top, MI were considered to have arguably the strongest opening pair in IPL 2022. But both struggled to get going when there were field restrictions in place, and their above-mentioned strike rate tells the story.

On the tally of most run-getters inside Powerplay overs, MI, with 587 runs, languish at eighth place, only above Kolkata Knight Riders (575) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (551). Both KKR and SRH had concerns regarding openers ahead of the season. Thus, their failures are still acceptable. But one cannot expect this chaos from MI, which has always got a top-heavy batting unit.

Death Overs - B+

Largely due to the rise of Tilak Verma and the overwhelming arrival of Tim David, MI did reasonably well in the last five overs. In 13 matches, they burgeoned 602 runs while striking at 164.48 in this period. They sit at sixth place in terms of strike rates by franchises, after RCB (170.56), Lucknow Super Giants (169.64), Rajasthan Royals (169. 46), Delhi Capitals (169.04), and Gujarat Titans (166.97).

The above-mentioned statistics are prior to IPL 2022 final.

Bowling - B+

In all, MI bowlers went for 8.75 runs an over in IPL 2022. Only SRH (8.90) conceded more than them in the entire season, which tells how lacklustre they were throughout the season with the ball in hand.

MI’s top wicket-takers in IPL 2022:

Jasprit Bumrah | 53.2 Overs | 15 Wickets | 7.18 Economy Rate

Daniel Sams | 42 Overs | 13 Wickets | 8.81 Economy Rate

Murugan Ashwin | 29 Overs | 9 Wickets | 7.86 Economy Rate

Riley Meredith | 28 overs | 8 Wickets | 8.43 Economy Rate

Powerplay - B+

The MI bowlers, led by Bumrah, picked up 22 wickets in the Powerplay overs, the joint-fourth alongside Punjab Kings. Their economy rate (7.65) in the initial overs was not the worst either. But they had better records when Bumrah and Trent Boult bowled in tandem.

Safe to say, MI did not have someone this year who can fill Boult’s void.

Death Overs - A

Surprisingly, despite not having a potent bowling attack, MI were the only side that went for less than 11 runs an over in death overs. They took 33 wickets in that period, which has nothing sort of an average record. Of which, Bumrah got seven, while Riley Meredith and Ramandeep Singh shared 10 wickets between them.

Mumbai Indians' Report Card for IPL 2022. © SportsCafe Graphic Team

Captaincy - B

Despite being the all-format skipper of Team India and a widely-successful skipper of MI, Rohit’s decisions, with the options he had, were mostly below-par. He did not utilise Bumrah properly in the first six overs more often than not, which has been criticized by many.

Besides, Pollard had a forgettable IPL campaign this year. Rohit backed him till the end despite a brisk inning from David in the initial phase. The Singapore-born cricketer was dropped for no reason, and then, came back in style in the final few contests.

To be honest, Rohit cannot be blamed for MI’s mysterious auction strategy, but he could have used his reinforcements a little better.