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Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma will need to improve himself with the bat and at the same time, look into the death bowling of his team as they enter a crucial phase of the tournament when they meet the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a mid-table IPL clash in Mumbai on Tuesday, May 9.
The Team India skipper has scored 184 runs in 10 matches at an average of 18.39 and hit only one half-century. He is enduring a second consecutive poor season with the bat and with MI in sixth position, they will need to give their everything to move up the points table.
Current MI head coach Mark Boucher admitted that the team's consistency could get compromised if a batter goes out of his way to look for runs, but for Sharma, one of the highest run-getters in the IPL, this is now a pattern. In last year's IPL, which was MI's poorest in terms of performance as they finished last, Sharma averaged a little over 19 while scoring 268 runs in 14 matches.
In his stead, MI have had the likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Cameron Green consolidating in the middle while Tilak Varma and Tim David have also found their groove as late finishers in the batting order.
MI tried taking pressure off Sharma by sending him to No. 3 in their last game against Chennai Super Kings, but it was a move that backfired. He was caught for a second consecutive duck and a fourth single-digit score on the trot while an otherwise firing Green fell for six at the opening slot.
MI could only make a poor 139/8 in CSK's home ground, losing an away game to their arch-rivals for the first time in 13 years.
At the same time, Mumbai Indians will also be concerned about their death overs bowling, having conceded four consecutive totals in excess of 200 while bowling first, two of which were recorded on flat decks here at the Wankhede Stadium.
On the other hand, RCB will hope that their troika of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell fire at the top, since whenever they have done so collectively, the team has found itself mostly on the right side of the results.
Mahipal Lomror struck a quality 54 against Delhi Capitals but his knock was not enough as RCB suffered a shock defeat, which kept them at the fifth spot in the points table with five wins and as many defeats in 10 matches.
With 511 runs, Du Plessis is the only batter this season to have crossed the 500-run mark and RCB will hope that their skipper gets going with others in his tow to a big total if they bat first.
But it remains to be seen if RCB have more in their batting shelf apart from the big three, who have done the heavy lifting so far in the IPL. Dinesh Karthik has failed with the bat this season and RCB also do not have a big hitter in their lower-middle order either.
The inclusion of Josh Hazlewood has provided a shot in the arm to RCB's bowling with Mohammed Siraj at the helm, having snaffled 15 wickets in 10 matches so far.
Teams
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (c), Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan, Jason Behrendorff, Dewald Brevis, Piyush Chawla, Tim David, Raghav Goyal, Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan (wk), Duan Jansen, Chris Jordan, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Riley Meredith, Shams Mulani, Ramandeep Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Hrithik Shokeen, Tristan Stubbs, Arjun Tendulkar, Tilak Varma, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Suryakumar Yadav.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Faf du Plessis (c), Akash Deep, Finn Allen, Anuj Rawat, Avinash Singh, Manoj Bhandage, Michael Bracewell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Siddarth Kaul, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Suyash Prabhudessai, Rajan Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karn Sharma, Himanshu Sharma, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Kedar Jadhav.
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