The worrying gulf between Bumrah and the rest

A week ago at the Brabourne, in their first game of the season, Mumbai Indians lost an encounter they should have comprehensively won. With the chasing side Delhi Capitals 104/6 in the 14th over in pursuit of 178, the game was in the bag. But the five-time champions eventually went on to inexplicably lose the match, that too with ten balls to spare.

It was a stinging loss. But in Mumbai’s defence, the team witnessed something unprecedented as Jasprit Bumrah misfired like never before. In 3.2 overs, Bumrah conceded 43 runs, taking no wickets — his most expensive spell while defending a target in the IPL in over four years. That he was taken to the cleaners by Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel, a rookie and a bowling all-rounder, meant that there was an argument to be made for it being Bumrah’s worst ever spell in a Mumbai shirt. 

Silly as it may sound, Rohit and Mumbai had an excuse: that they lost because Bumrah had a rare off day. A fair excuse one must say, given how, in the absence of Archer, MI’s entire bowling revolves around Bumrah.

Today at the DY Patil Stadium, Bumrah did a 180° turnaround: 4-0-17-3, his joint third-best figures in a Mumbai shirt whilst bowling first. 

And yet, the result turned out to be the same.

This time around, there are no excuses. Only reality.

And the reality is that, two games into the season, Mumbai are already feeling the effects of having a bowling unit in which the gulf between the best bowler and the rest is colossal. 

It was the difference-maker on Saturday as while Rajasthan had multiple avenues to bombard the Mumbai batters, Rohit Sharma had Bumrah and Bumrah only. Ultimately, it was simply not enough. 

It is common in the IPL for even the best of sides to have a weak link or two in the XI. Even ‘that’ Mumbai unit of 2020 was not perfect; there was many a game in which teams targeted the fifth bowler, whether it be Krunal Pandya or the third seamer (that was often an overseas bowler).

But more often than not, the captain has secondary bowlers who, even if they don’t provide the cutting edge, can be relied on. 

The problem for Rohit is that, outside of Bumrah, it seems that he simply has nowhere to go; no one he can trust. Two games in, it is an issue that has been laid bare already.  

It spoke volumes that, today, the MI skipper had more trust in Pollard than two of his designated frontline bowlers — Basil Thampi and Murugan Ashwin — to get the job done against the likes of Buttler, Samson and Hetmyer. 

Truth be told, even before a single ball had been bowled in the season, the way Mumbai had constructed their pace attack seemed questionable. They retained Bumrah and went all out on Archer — keeping more than one eye on the future — but assembled supporting pacers that were either too raw, too inconsistent or unproven at the IPL level. Outside of Tymal Mills, they did not acquire a single phase specialist. 

It is fair to say that, thus far, the strategy has cost them on the field. Two games in, Basil Thampi and Daniel Sams have not just looked out of their depth, but have proven to be liabilities. 

In an ideal world, the five-time champs just replace them with bowlers guaranteed to provide better returns, but the reality is that the alternatives for this season, Jaydev Unadkat and Riley Meredith, are just as likely to be taken to the cleaners. 

What was really striking in today’s encounter, though, was the contrast in the quality of the spin department of the two sides. 

On one hand, you had Rajasthan’s spinners — Ashwin and Chahal — choking the batters, providing crucial breakthroughs and bowling the side to victory with combined figures of 8-0-56-3. On the other, you had Rohit being forced to restrict the only spinner in his XI to just three overs.  

It is true that Murugan Ashwin merely had a day to forget — keep in mind he was MI’s best bowler against DC, with figures of 2/14 — but what is undeniable is that there is a dearth of world-class operators that are bound to consistently win matches for the side. 

M Ashwin is a very good bowler in his own right, but for all six years of his IPL career, the leggie has operated as a second or third spinner; never as a talisman. Fabian Allen has international pedigree but he, too, does not possess the x-factor and would arguably not get into any side exclusively on the back of his bowling. 

And while Sanjay Yadav has never played IPL before, Mayank Markande has had only one good season to date — 2018 — and has played a total of 4 IPL games across the last three seasons. 

Unless one of the aforementioned individuals play out of their minds, it is hard to see Mumbai threatening on the spin bowling front.

With the team’s bowling attack as weak as it has ever been, then, all the onus is on the batting to do the heavy lifting. The chances of that happening should increase exponentially once Suryakumar Yadav is fit and available, but on batting paradises, more often than not, it is bowlers that win you games. 

Early days, but with no Archer, Rohit Sharma and Mumbai Indians have their work cut out.