PRE MATCH ANALYSIS
Follow UsYou probably would have to go all the way back to the previous decade to find the last instance of a Mumbai Indians clash being an ‘easy game’ for their opponents. No match is, of course, won on paper, especially in a format like T20 that’s unpredictable to the core, but the Lucknow Super Giants would certainly be looking at Saturday’s clash as an encounter where two points are simply there for the taking. For until now, everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong for the Mumbai Indians.
It’s not like they’ve not tried. Since the gut-wrenching loss in their very first game against the Delhi Capitals, there has been no paucity of experimentation. Against KKR, they bolstered their batting by playing three foreign batters. Against RCB, they bizarrely went with just two foreigners. And in their last clash against Punjab Kings, they sacrificed batting depth and bulked up the bowling by playing five specialist bowlers.
They’ve thrown everything at the wall to see if something sticks, but nothing has ended up working.
Essentially, bad decision making (both at the auction and now during the competition) coupled with some bad luck has resulted in Mumbai comfortably being the worst team of IPL 2022.
Which is why their opponents on Saturday, Lucknow, would be looking at the clash as a golden opportunity to register a ‘W’ and climb up the ladder.
As things stand, the KL Rahul-led side is one of the five teams stuck on six points with three wins and two losses. But they would be annoyed, if not angry, that the tally is not already 8. At the Wankhede, they had Rajasthan exactly where they wanted, with Marcus Stoinis coming up against a debutant at the death, but they still ended up not getting over the line.
After a disappointing loss like that, the Super Giants would undoubtedly be itching to get back to winning ways. Harsh as it may sound, currently, their best bet of doing so seems like encountering a Mumbai Indians unit that looks disjoint, disoriented and despondent.
Lucknow have insane firepower with the bat, but resource management is key
With Marcus Stoinis now having returned to the starting XI, Lucknow’s batting unit looks scary. Nine of their players are able six hitters, and about seven of them have the ability to win matches on their own, single-handedly. That Lucknow were ‘disappointed’ to not win vs Rajasthan after being 102/7 should tell you everything you need to know about this batting line-up.
But all said and done, everything comes down to how effectively you utilize your resources. Against Rajasthan, the Super Giants didn’t quite seem to do that. The move to send in Krishnappa Gowtham as a pinch-hitter in the powerplay, though it didn’t come off, was innovative and positive, true. But the same cannot be said about the decision to send in Jason Holder at No.4 and let him face chin-music against Boult and Prasidh. Not only is Holder more valuable down the order, both Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni, in the first match against Gujarat Titans, showed that they are capable of rebuilding and then launching towards the end. Perhaps it might have been better to send one of those two post the loss of Gowtham and hold back Holder for the latter part of the innings.
Now that they have a full-strength XI at their disposal, the challenge for the Lucknow management will be to ensure that the right individuals are used for the right situations. LSG are blessed with a flexible middle-order where nearly every batter can bat anywhere between No.3 to No.8, but that flexibility will count for nothing should the resources be misused.
What’s the deal with Riley Meredith and Fabian Allen?
In each of their last two games, Mumbai Indians opted to not use the full quota of foreign players. Against RCB, they flabbergastingly went with just two overseas players, while against Punjab, they used three. Tim David, for some reason, has not made the starting XI following failures in his first two matches, while the five-time champs rightly did away with Daniel Sams following his horror show against the Knight Riders.
There are two players who are nowhere to be found, however, and they are Riley Meredith and Fabian Allen. Even after losing each of their first four games, the management did not hand a cap to either of them, both of whom, one feels, would add some kind of edge to the side owing to the x-factor they possess.
With Brevis and Pollard the only fixed foreign spots in the XI, there are two more slots up for the taking. Really, nothing is stopping Mumbai from fielding at least one of Meredith or Allen, if not both.
Unadkat arguably deserves a game or two more, but both Mills and Basil Thampi have failed to impress despite featuring in 4 and 5 games respectively. Meredith might not have had the greatest of starts to his IPL career in 2021, but he possesses raw pace, and could be a weapon in both the powerplay and the middle-overs.
And including Allen in the XI will not only provide the team with a second-spinner (a good defensive option; Allen’s overall T20 ER is 7.81), but more muscle with the bat. With Brevis having now hit the ground running, throwing Allen into the mix will make Mumbai’s batting close to formidable.
Whether both Allen and Meredith are carrying niggles, remains unknown. As things stand, however, other than injury, there is no logical explanation for Mumbai continuing to ignore the pair.
Probable XIs
LSG: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Jason Holder, Krishnappa Gowtham, Dushmantha Chameera, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan
MI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Jaydev Unadkat, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Riley Meredith