Mumbai Indians have lost all their three matches and are struggling to perform as a team. They had been in the same rocky boat four times in the past — 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2018. In 2015, they famously went on to win the title as well.
Time is running out and they need to turn the tide when they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday evening. Suryakumar Yadav’s return from injury, however, was a timely boost to the side as he scored 52 off 36 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday. But that didn’t prove to be good enough.
RCB, on the other hand, will receive a major boost with Glenn Maxwell ready to return to action. The Australian’s presence will further boost their batting, especially at the death. RCB could now have seven genuine bowling options with Maxwell set to replace West Indies’ Sherfane Rutherford in the XI.
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has called for more desperation and hunger from his team.
“We seriously cannot be blaming individuals here. It’s all of us. We win together, we lose together. That is as simple as that for me,” Rohit said in a passionate speech in the dressing room after the KKR game.
“I think slight desperation is required from each one of us. That desperation is very, very important when we play, especially in this tournament. Because opposition are different, they come up with different plans all the time. We just need to stay ahead of them. We just need to stay on top of them.
“And the only way we can do that is by having that slight hunger and that desperation on the field — with the bat, with the ball,” he remarked.
Rohit felt there was no need to panic and urged his teammates to play as a unit. “So we are doing some good things. All three games that we’ve played, we’ve done some really good things. We don’t need to panic.”
Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond feels it is important to stick to the basics.
“It’s a simple fix really. If we can stick to our plans and stick to the areas we want to bowl when the pressure is on, then I think you’ll see a turnaround,” Bond said. “As I said, I think we’ve seen that when we’ve executed our plans the way that we wanted to, we’ve been really successful.”
