Need to have a conversation with Ishan about his returns: Mahela Jayawardene

Mumbai Indians spent 15 crores, nearly one-third of their available purse for the auction, to acquire Ishan Kishan’s services in the mega auction. Even though that seemed like an overly ambitious move, the returns that he had in the 2020 and 2021 seasons - he scored 757 runs averaging 42.1 at a strike rate of 141.8 - made the purchase worthy of its price. 

However, that hasn’t worked out well for the franchise this season as Kishan has scored 199 runs in eight innings. More than his average (28.4), the concern lies in the sluggish strike rate of 108.2. Among the 12 batters who have scored 100 runs or more in the powerplay, Kishan’s strike rate of 98.2 is the lowest. Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene confirmed that he is going to have a conversation with the wicket-keeper batter about his diminishing returns.

“On the field, Ishan struggled a bit in the last four games after having a good start. The first few I didn’t have a conversation with him but now probably we have to figure out what is going through his mind. We have given him the freedom to play his natural game which he probably hasn’t executed well in the last few games. Current returns are not something we are looking for from him up at the top,” Jayawardene said in the post-match press conference.

“I need to review our batting and have a chat with the rest of the coaches. And make some plans obviously. Batting has been a concern for us which we haven’t been able to execute, especially on good batting wickets. We batted under par. This is a senior group, that understands the responsibilities and has done it in the past. We need to keep pushing.”

Mumbai Indians bowlers did well to restrict Lucknow Super Giants for a paltry total of 168 runs despite KL Rahul scoring a century. Jayawardene is impressed with his bowling unit but admitted that they gave away a lot of freebies that could have been controlled.

“We bowled pretty well. KL’s innings was pretty well. He batted throughout the inninsg and he played certain situations where he knew he had to control things. There were certain times when we gave him the freedom to get within those few boundaries when he was under pressure. I thought the target we were chasing were under par on this wicket and especially with one side's shorter boundary. Overall, happy with bowling but could have been better,” the coach added.