 "Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya sets the field during a match against Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. AP")
It has been a season to forget for Mumbai Indians in more ways than one. On Wednesday, they became the first team to be knocked out of the IPL 2024 playoff race when Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets and 62 balls to spare .
SRH’s win took them to third place in the IPL points table with 14 points, behind Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals who have 16 points each. With LSG and Delhi Capitals playing each other on 14 May, one of those teams will reach at least 14 points. The maximum MI can get is 12 - if they win their remaining two games, which will still leave them outside the top four. The same fate awaits the losing team on Thursday, when Punjab Kings face Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Under new captain Hardik Pandya, MI started the season poorly, with three straight defeats. Though they won three of their next four games, another streak of four successive defeats hurt their playoff chances.
It also reportedly led to senior members of the Mumbai Indians team expressing displeasure with Pandya’s leadership style and lack of buzz in the dressing room. MI had appointed Pandya as captain, from Rohit Sharma, in the off-season and the move has not earned many fans with the all-rounder booed relentlessly by supporters home and away.
As per a report, MI stars Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah shared their thoughts on why the team was not doing well this season. The interactions have reportedly not been limited to player-coaches but other team management representatives also.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“These are regular teething problems for a team that sees leadership change. This happens in sports all the time,” an MI official told The Indian Express.
A flashpoint to the difference was Pandya singling out Tilak Varma after their loss to Delhi Capitals. In his post match interaction, Pandya said Varma lacked “match awareness.”
“When Axar Patel (DC bowler) was bowling to a left-hander (Tilak), the better option could have been to go after him,” Hardik told the broadcasters. “I think it was just a little game awareness that we missed out on. At the end of the day, that cost us the game.”
Experts commentating the IPL have said there is something amiss about Mumbai Indians this season. Aaron Finch said Pandya looked “flattened and drained” . Irfan Pathan, Shane Watson and Steve Smith questioned decisions in loss to Kolkata Knight Riders . Former Australia captain Michael Clarke went on to say that “there are different groups inside the Mumbai Indians changing room.”
I think there are different groups inside that changing room and something is not working, they are not gelling together, they are not playing as a team,” said Clarke on Star Sports.