It is not often that we have seen Mumbai Indians in a situation like this that they find themselves in and many times when they have been in dire straits they have managed to get back into the fray and qualify. At this point, a spot in the next round seems a long way off. They would need to win all remaining games to have a fair chance of qualifying and given their form not many would want to bet on that possibility at the moment. As it currently stands on the points table, the Mumbai Indians are at the bottom and still looking for their first win. Not only that, they have a pretty bad net run rate of -1.048 which they’re looking to improve along with some points on the board. It’s not like the Mumbai Indians were completely outplayed by their opponents. It’s just that the Indians of Mumbai failed to take the final leap to face the critical moments. The fact that Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan didn’t do well for them didn’t help their cause either. Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma have done well for them in the middle class and that’s perhaps the only thing that has kept their hopes alive despite a disastrous start. Also on the bowling front we saw that they made a number of mistakes which is not normally a trait of the Mumbai Indians. Aside from Jasprit Bumrah, none of their bowlers have looked sharp enough to cause any problems. This in turn has allowed the opposing batsmen to safely outplay him and attack the other batsmen. Largely because of the performance of their bowlers, the Mumbai Indians are in a bad position and some radical changes are needed to bounce back from here. We expect Tymal Mills to sit out the next game and the same could happen with Murugan Ashwin to make way for Mayank Markande. Hitting hasn’t performed as well as it’s capable, but it looks done. The Mumbai Indians would have to play out of their skins in this upcoming game and if they are able to do so, the Chennai Super Kings will surely have their work cut out.
PBKS played their previous game without Mayank Aggarwal but now he is expected to be back in the playing XI. That will strengthen the hitting and allow someone like Shikhar Dhawan to play with a little more freedom. PBKS certainly have a player in form in Liam Livingstone. He was one of the most exciting players in IPL 2022 with runs, lots of sixes and a very high batting average in all phases of the innings. Liam Livingstone is the player to keep an eye on. A bet on him becoming man of the match or maybe top batsman for PBKS could be a great option. There are concerns here too. Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow are yet to set the 2022 IPL season on fire. The lower middle class of Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith offers a lot of power but not too much stability. PBKS has played an absolutely fearless brand of cricket so far. This means that some days it performs spectacularly and other days it fails completely. We think PBKS is expecting a brilliant match, but that’s just a feeling!
