Mumbai Indians have nothing more to lose perhaps in IPL 2022 after eight defeats on the trot. But will that be motivation enough for them to get their maiden win of the season on Saturday?

But that’s easier said than done as their opponents will be Rajasthan Royals, one of the strongest teams this year. The Royals are on a three-match winning streak and have lost just two of their eight games so far. Sanju Samson’s team will not be short on motivation for sure to bulldoze past a lacklustre Mumbai team and consolidate their place in the top three of the standings.

The Royals cannot be blamed if they feel confident of a win on Saturday in Navi Mumbai. They have a team full of performers. Jos Buttler (499 runs, including three centuries) has been a colossus with the bat, while Yuzvendra Chahal (18 wickets, including a hat-trick) has been spinning his way to glory. There are others too — Samson, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin and Trent Boult — who have stood up to the challenge more than once.

Contrast that with Mumbai’s situation. Almost nothing has been working for the five-time champions. The stars are under-performing, while the would-be-stars are finding it hard to carry the team on their young shoulders. One hopes they will get to win a match this season soon, but it is very difficult to predict when that will come.

Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma, himself struggling for form, has failed to point out what has gone wrong for the team this year. Though that answer is not known, one assumes that Mumbai’s route back to winning ways goes through the performance of their senior players.