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With the ouster of five-time Indian Premier League's (IPL) champions Mumbai Indians (MI) from playoffs race, head coach Mahela Jayawardene has hinted at a few changes after thier misfiring star-studded batting line up led by star opener Ishan Kishan.
The KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) handed the IPL 2020's winners a 36-run defeat on Sunday which extended MI's losing streak to eight.
The Mumbai-based franchise broke bank to rope in the flamboyant southpaw Kishan for a whopping Rs 15.25 crore in the IPL 2022 mega auction, making him the most expensive player of the 15th season of the cash-rich league.
Kishan was entrusted a task to partner with skipper Rohit Sharma to open the innings to provide a good start for MI in the IPL 2022.
The 23-year-old made a resounding start to the tournament by scoring 81 in MI's IPL 2022's opener. But since then he has been seen struggling with the willow. In a total of eight matches so far he has only managed to muster 199 runs.
"Obviously on the field you have seen that he struggled a bit in the last four games after having a good start in the first few. I have not had a conversation with him yet after this game to figure out what went through his mind on how we wanted to approach it. We have given him freedom to play his natural game which he probably has not executed well in the last few games," said Jayawardene during a virtual post-match press conference," Jayawardene
Kishan (8 off 20) again failed to deliver in a match against LSG on Sunday, which saw Lucknow skipper Rahul continuing his fairytale run against MI by slamming an unbeaten 103 off 62 balls with the help of 12 fours and four maximums to help his side post 168/6. In reply, MI faltered to 132/8 following the sudden batting collapse.
"We have had conversations with him, even today when Rohit was batting well, he struggled. That is a conversation I have to have with him after this game. But, yeah, definitely not what we are looking from him up at the top," Jayawardene further added.
