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Follow UsMumbai Indians slumped to their seventh straight defeat, the first of its kind in IPL history, after they lost to CSK by three wickets on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium. They stay rooted to the bottom of the 10-team table with their campaign half done. Swann felt that it is too much for the five-time champions to make it to the playoffs this season.
"I wasn't shocked because they are in a panic state. Now we can say that they are not going to qualify now. It's too big of a jump to make for them," Swann said in Cricket.com's match review.
Defending a small total of 156, MI bowlers reduced CSK to 106/6 in 15.4 overs, but MS Dhoni (28 not out off 13 balls) took to them their second victory of the season by scoring 16 off Jaydev Unadkat's final four balls. Swann said he was sure CSK would chase it down successfully.
"We've just witnessed a master at work. There was a lot of doubt around him; whether MSD should be playing or not. I knew he could do it and the six off the final over told me that they are going to definitely doing this," Swann said.
Despite a good day with the ball, CSK had an unusual day in the field with Ravindra Jadeja dropping two easy catches. Swann said it was shocker to see an ace fielder like Jadeja dropping catches.
"For a while, Mumbai were brilliant in the field, but CSK...My Word! When Jadeja, the best fielder in the world, missed Brevis' catch, I was having dinner and I spat out some of the chicken in shock. I couldn't believe it," he said.
CSK also made two changes by dropping Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan for the match. Ali, who was crucial for CSK last year, hasn't hit the heights this season. While his switch with Mitchell Santner could be a tactical one, Swann felt the match-ups strategy takes the captain's instinct out of the game.
"It is never nice being dropped even if it is for tactical purposes. Moeen Ali was retained by CSK after a good season and his batting nosedived. I'm fed up with these match-ups everyone's talking about. I don't mind it here or there but I'm not for deciding which over a bowler has to bowl just because the statistician said so. I might sound like a dinosaur, but it has costed these big franchises. These are about the captain's instinct and tactical nous," he said.
CSK's transition of playing under Jadeja's captaincy has not been a good one with MS Dhoni stepping down from the role at the start of the season. Swann felt there is still much left in the campaign to gauge the left-armer's captaincy.
"Its a tricky situation for him. MS doesn't wanna do it, because he is at the end of his career, so Jadeja was the best option. He is not doing anything wrong tactically, but he is not thriving in his game. But we will have to wait till the end of the season," Swann said.
MI's bowling good, Rohit will bounce back
MI made three changes for the match by bringing in Hrithik Shokeen (0-23), Riley Meredith (1-25) and Daniel Sams (4-30) who were crucial in restricting CSK in the middle overs. Swann felt the bowling trio were excellent but didn't have enough runs to defend.
"They bowled brilliantly. They almost won the game but they were 20 runs short," Swann said.
Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck in Mukesh Choudhary's first over. The Indian captain and Virat Kohli, have had a lukewarm IPL 2022 scoring 114 and 119 runs respectively from seven games so far. Swann expected the star batters to come good in the time before the T20 World Cup.
"Both are world-class players and all players go through this. It's just that we are not used to it and it is happening for both of them at the same time. If you are an Indian fan, it is a long time for World T20, so don't panic."
Ishan Kishan was bowled for a single-ball duck as he endured another dismal outing with the bat which has been a worry for MI this season. The left-handed keeper batter was bought for Rs 13.25 Crore in the auction. When asked if the youngster hasn't lived up to his price tag, Swann said: "I can't see how price tag can weigh on your mind when you are a player good as this. There is not the pressure of being an overseas player and there are only four spots. He is just terribly out of form."
When asked whom India should pick for their batting Swann said that everyone needs to wait till the end of the IPL before making predictions.
"On the current form, if India are playing England, I have to pick Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan," Swann joked.
"There is a lot of cricket to be played in the IPL. For example, everyone's talking about DK and rightly so. What if he doesn't have a good tournament later on? Who knows if Badoni might score two hundreds and he is in the team or Rahul Tewatia might win more games with last-ball sixes," he said.
Swann felt that the mega auction has levelled the playing field with big players going to different teams.
"Big auctions even things out for all the teams. There shouldn't be the top, bottom and also-rans in the table. All the teams must have equal chance to win the total. Im sure all the teams recognize this and don't feel hard done by the auction," the former off-spinner said.
