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After finishing at the bottom of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the first time in their 15-year history, Mumbai Indians (MI) wrapped up their season with a convincing five-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals (DC), ending their playoffs race and gifting the remaining spot to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
A reason for their underwhelming season was the dismal form of their skipper Rohit Sharma who scored just 248 runs at an average of 19.14 and a strike rate of 120.17 in 14 games. This is also the first time Rohit has failed to hit a single half-century in an IPL season. The MI skipper himself reiterated his disappointment with his performance but believes that his form needs a 'minor adjustment' and such things are not uncommon in the sport of cricket.
"A lot of things that I wanted to do didn't happen," he said after Mumbai's last league game. "But this has happened with me earlier as well, so it's not something I am going through for the first time. I know cricket doesn't end here; there is a lot of cricket ahead. So I need to take care of the mental aspect and think about how I can return to form and perform. It's only a minor adjustment and I will try to work on that whenever there is some time off."
Mumbai suffered eight successive losses at the beginning of their season, and despite winning four of their last six games, it wasn't enough to avoid the wooden spoon. Their fortunes mirrored the own form of their skipper Rohit.
"It was a bit disappointing season for us as we couldn't execute our plans at the start of the tournament," Rohit said. "And we know that in tournaments like the IPL, you have to build that momentum. Initially, when we kept losing games one after another, that was a difficult time. For us, what was important was to make sure that whatever we had planned, we came out and tried those things. It didn't happen exactly the way we wanted to."
"But it happens sometimes when you have a new team as some players take some time to understand their roles. Certain guys were playing for the first time for this franchise. And they play different roles when they play for their country, for their state, or in different leagues. And when they come here, they get different roles. So it takes a little time to get adjusted," the 35-year-old India team captain added.
