Do you remember the things around you when Mumbai Indians last won the opening match of their IPL campaign vs Chennai Super Kings on April 4, 2012 at the Chepauk?
Narendra Modi was still CM of Gujarat, Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister of India, the Sensex was 17486, the Nifty was 5322, Harbhajan Singh was captain of the franchise that had Sachin Tendulkar and Lasith Malinga still playing, Rohit Sharma had only two ODI hundreds and was a middle-order batter and hadn’t played Test cricket.
Virat Kohli was yet to captain India. Rahul Dravid had just retired from international cricket a fortnight ago and VVS Laxman was still an active cricketer. And the world still looked at you in awe if you carried a Blackberry. To make it short, it’s been a while.
And when Kieron Pollard, the current batting coach of the five-time winners addressed the media in Ahmedabad after their stunning six-run loss to Gujarat Titans, his words rang a bell.
“The tournament is long, and the guys are coming in and understanding what is needed at this level. We will get it right,” Pollard said.
Skipper Hardik Pandya was equally optimistic. “Not an issue, 13 games to go,” he said. They sounded exactly like captain Rohit after losing the opening games during his captaincy tenure.
SAMPLE THIS:
2014 vs KKR: “I hope the guys stay positive and enjoy each other’s company. It’s a long tournament.”
2015 vs KKR: “I’m sure our guys can learn from the mistakes we made.”
2016 vs RPSG: “Just the start of the tournament, not to panic.”
2017 vs RPSG: “This is our first game and there is a lot of learning from this. I am sure we will bounce back.” 2018 vs CSK: “Good learning for all of us.”
2019 vs DC: “First game is always a bit of a challenge for most of the teams. We have to learn from our mistakes and come back positively next time.”
2020 vs CSK: “Something for us to learn. Still early days.”
2021 vs RCB: “Winning the championship is important, I guess, not the first game.”
2022 vs DC: “We always come prepared, whether it’s the first game or last game, we want to try and win. Disappointed, but it’s not the end.”
2023 vs RCB: “A lot of the guys haven’t played IPL before. First game of the season, lot to look forward to.”
To give it to MI though, despite being poor starters, they have won the title five times. In fact in 2015, they won it despite losing four of their first five games. The year before, they qualified despite losing their first five games. They may do so again, but Sunday’s loss had disturbing pointers.
Bumrah’s late introduction: When you have a bowler in the bowling form that Jasprit Bumrah is in now, it makes no sense to make him wait for three overs. Hardik, despite not bowling competitively for a while, chose to open the bowling and leaked runs. Bumrah’s instant success in his first over proved that the move to make him wait was a wrong one.
Brevis as impact player: Make no mistake, Dewald Brevis played a useful knock of 46 (38 b, 2×4, 3×6). However, he was chained by Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan, scoring only 22 runs in the 23 balls he faced off them. The attacking left-handed option of Nehal Wadhera, who impressed last year, would have been a better choice with the ball turning into him.
Hardik batting lower than Tim David: We all know Tim David struggles against spin and Shubman Gill having a short leg to Rashid Khan against the Aussie indicated that. With 40 needed off 25 balls, the skipper, who hasn’t been involved in a finishing role and had been batting at No. 4 for The Titans for the last few years, promoting David ahead of him, was a poor tactical move. Was he protecting himself against Rashid?