IPL 2021: What Mumbai Indians (MI) need to rectify going forward

Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) arrived into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 with the tag of favourites. The mighty MI clinched their fifth IPL title in UAE last year and were expected to continue their domination this season.

So far in the tournament, though, Mumbai Indians haven’t been at their best and have looked slightly vulnerable on multiple fronts. The Rohit Sharma led five-time winners have won 2 and lost 3 of their five matches in the IPL 2021.

While MI have been notoriously slow starters in the history of IPL, they’ve rarely looked so beatable at the beginning of their previous campaigns.

For a team glint with a powerpacked batting unit and quality fast-bowling, an area of Mumbai Indians’ game that has historically not been their strongest suit is their spin department. This perhaps explains why MI have found it a touch difficult to cope up with their oppositions at a spin-friendly venue at Chepauk.

With the ongoing IPL following a caravan system that sees all teams play their league-stage games outside their respective home venues, MI – a team built for truer pace and bounce at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai – have had to adapt to the ground in Chennai for their first five games.

Despite being pushed outside their comfort zone, Mumbai Indians have managed a couple of wins. But their initial games have still highlighted some issues that the defending champions must rectify going forward in order to regain their best form as a team. These are problems that Mumbai Indians would do well to resurrect as they move out of Chennai for the rest of their league fixtures.

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Mumbai Indians are the defending champions in IPL 2021.

What Mumbai Indians (MI) need to rectify going forward

1. Inconsistent batting

A side-effect of not playing at the Wankhede has been the inconsistency of Mumbai Indians’ top six, which has been put off rhythm due to the lack of pace and bounce in Chennai. Captain Rohit Sharma, and even Suryakumar Yadav, have still found a way to be effective but Kieron Pollard, Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock and Hardik Pandya – four of the most crucial players for MI – have struggled for any sort of flow with the bat.

While the likes of De Kock and Kishan haven’t been able to control the upper half of the MI innings as successfully as they did last season, Pollard and Hardik haven’t got the flurry of boundaries associated with them towards the later stages.

These players would’ve hoped for some relief moving out of Chennai but with MI playing their next few games at another bowler-friendly ground in Delhi, MI’s top and middle-order will have to up their games significantly if they are to bounceback in more unfamiliar circumstances.

2. MI need more from their spin attack

Twice in two games now, Mumbai Indians’ spin attack has been out-bowled by the opposition spin attack. And while it can be argued that their tweakers have been let down by their batsmen’s inability to post more intimidating totals on the board, the fact of the matter is that Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar don’t make for the strongest spin combination in the tournament.

Though Rahul Chahar has still been quite successful with 9 wickets from 5 outings at an economy rate of 6.85, MI desperately need more out of Krunal the left-arm spinner, who has conceded 7.25 runs per over in the IPL 2021 while taking just three wickets.

MI made a valuable addition to their attack in off-spinner Jayant Yadav towards the end of the Chennai leg and they need Chahar, Krunal and Jayant to collectively come to their rescue and plug the spin hole in an attack featuring spearheads Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult in the pace department.

MI play their next four matches in Delhi on April 29, May 1, May 4 and May 8 against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a return fixture, respectively. It’ll be interesting to see whether MI are able to resurrect their spin issue – both with the bat and the ball – and progress in the tournament from here on.