Jasprit Bumrah is still the force he ever was, but Mumbai Indians’ shortcomings haven’t helped him – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

As Mumbai Indians looked set for another loss against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday night, Kieron Pollard struggled to put bat on ball. 59 were needed off 24 balls, and he just couldn’t get the ball away. The next eight balls included three dots, two singles for Pollard and two run-outs. To say Mumbai, and Pollard, were in disarray would be an understatement.

When was the last time Pollard won a game with the bat for Mumbai Indians? You have to roll back a year, when he smacked 87 not out off 34 balls against Chennai Super Kings in May 2021. That was in the first half of IPL 2021, almost 1.5 seasons ago, and he didn’t do much for the remainder season, scoring only 148 more runs in 12 innings. This year, when Mumbai is in deep trouble, his returns have been even fewer – 144 runs in 11 innings. You can almost sense a pattern here.

It is almost imperative to ask if this has been a poor retention by Mumbai then. They spent INR 6 crores on Pollard again, which could have been otherwise spent on Quinton de Kock (INR 6.75 crores to Lucknow Super Giants) or Trent Boult (INR 8 crore to Rajasthan Royals). These two players were let go early in the auction as Mumbai saved up for Ishan Kishan, thus betraying their entire auction strategy.

Jasprit Bumrah of Mumbai Indians with his trophies during match 56 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2022 (IPL season 15) between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders held at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on the 9th May 2022. Sportzpics for IPL

A poor retention ahead of IPL 2022 has often led to disastrous consequences, and Mumbai isn’t the only team to suffer them. Just ask Chennai Super Kings, or even Kolkata Knight Riders for that matter. Whether Moeen Ali or Varun Chakravarthy, Ravindra Jadeja or Venkatesh Iyer, they have missed the mark by some distance in this season, and results have gone haywire.

It has been particularly painful for Mumbai Indians, of course. Their entire set-up has been geared towards the future, even if they didn’t expect the present situation to be so dire. After that auction strategy unfolded, their entire season was dependent majorly on the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakmumar Yadav, Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah. No wonder, it has come a cropper.

Again, looking at those names, the imbalance between bat and ball is so obvious. Atleast Mumbai had four senior batsmen to handle the run-scoring responsibility, and yet they were hamstrung by poor form, injuries and the clear case of a cricketer being past-it in Pollard’s particular case. In the bowling department though, the lack of a proper top-class spinner, and any support from fast bowlers, meant that Bumrah has had to do all of it by himself alone.

10 wickets in 11 matches do not really do justice to Bumrah. For a bowler of his stature, it is a pitiful return but the accompanying circumstances are worse than his bowling figures. At 7.41, Bumrah has the lowest economy amongst Mumbai bowlers – only Tilak Varma, who has bowled two overs in 11 matches – has a lower economy of 6.5. It is a clear reflection on how this franchise simply forgot to hedge its bets during the retention and auction period, thus hanging its best players out to dry.

Mumbai’s go-to bowling strategy has been to deploy three pacers, along with two spinners, and then have the likes of Pollard and Hardik Pandya to chip-in with overs if needed. It wasn’t just a high-profile pacer like Boult who was let go, but also the likes of Jimmy Neesham, Adam Milne, Marco Jansen, Nathan-Coulter Nile, Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya. The entire bowling playbook was torn up, but did Mumbai really anticipate rebuilding it with one name?

It isn’t as if Bumrah hasn’t tried. Roll back a few games and he opened the bowling against Rajasthan Royals, deployed against the ferocious might of Jos Buttler. That was some battle – 140-plus, nipping inswingers, a watchful yet aggressive batsman and a bowler at the top of his art. That last bit is vital – looking at his returns this season, many would wonder if Bumrah really were in his best form?

The answer is a mixed bag. T20 cricket doesn’t allow you to hide anywhere, and Mumbai’s bowling strategy has been laid threadbare. This is the era where even the remotest change in strategy is over-analysed and Mumbai’s lack of strength hasn’t gone unnoticed either. Opposition batsmen are fully aware of Bumrah’s threats – just that they are happy to play him off and attack the other bowlers. He would bowl his full quota of overs, mixing in slower ones and yorkers, his full bag of tricks. But it isn’t enough when batsmen are happily going to play you for 1-for-20-odd in four overs, only to attack others.

The lack of support, whether from pace or spin departments, has been found wanting. Bowling, much like batting, is done in pairs and it is true for T20 cricket as much as it is for ODIs or Tests. Bumrah simply hasn’t had that support from the other end to be able to create any run-saving, or wicket-taking, pressure on the opposition. Even so, Mumbai has stuck to its age-old strategy to use Bumrah sparingly across the innings and not at one go.

Bumrah bowls one over early and then one in the middle overs, with two overs held back for the death. This strategy has befuddled most commentators and analysts – in a season where Mumbai is obviously struggling, they could have used Bumrah in a different way perhaps? On Monday night, it wasn’t any different as the world feed commentators debated this point.

In the meantime, Mumbai used Bumrah as they do, and he wreaked havoc in the latter stages. It showcased that this is the right strategy for the most dangerous bowler in this format, still. Only, there has been support missing from the other end.

With 5-for-10 against Kolkata, he is now the highest wicket-taker for Mumbai this season with 10 in 11 games – only Murugan Ashwin with 9 wickets comes close.

And that pretty much sums up this pitiful season for Mumbai Indians, and Bumrah, both.

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