A slow build-up is not alien to Mumbai Indians (MI). They have taken their time to gather pace in the Indian Premier League while capturing
five titles, all in the last decade. Keeping with their image as perennial slow starters, MI lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by two wickets in the opening game of IPL-14 at Chennai on Friday night.
It was MI’s ninth straight defeat in their first match of an IPL season, a dubious run going back to the 2013 edition when MI lost to RCB by two runs. That season though, MI went on to win their maiden title. Rohit Sharma and his team have taken their time to get going.
In their previous eight campaigns in which they surrendered their opener, thrice MI lost two of the first five matches, twice four matches were lost, there were three defeats once. In 2014, they lost the first five games.
It’s a pattern that hasn’t proved dear, though the team management hasn’t been able to put a finger on the causes. MI is one of the few franchises in IPL to retain the core group for many years, so it can’t be about new players taking time to adjust to the team environment.
Skipper Rohit Sharma referred to what could be a factor behind their slow start: not having enough time as a group to build up to a new season. It’s especially understandable this year, after a quick turnaround from India’s home series against England, strict quarantine rules and foreign players checking in at different points.
“A lot of the guys are coming from playing international cricket, so we haven’t had much time together as a group,” Sharma said at the presentation on Friday. “It was totally opposite in Dubai (last year), where we went a month before and began our preparations. It was not the case this time around. But that’s how IPL has been played over the years… you’ve just got to get into the game as quickly as possible.”
Unlike how MI have performed in the second half of the 14-match league stage, or later; in the five seasons in which Mumbai have lifted the trophy, they have won four of their last five group matches twice (2013, 2015), and won three apiece on way to the other triumphs (2017, 2019, 2020).
Even in 2014 when they started with five defeats in the UAE, they qualified for the eliminator by winning four of the last five league matches (Aditya Tare hit a winning six at the Wankhede Stadium with a boundary needed off that ball to edge out Rajasthan Royals for a play-offs spot, leaving RR mentor Rahul Dravid to angrily fling his cap down in the dugout).
“Winning the championship is important, I guess. Not the first game,” Sharma said with a smile on being asked about MI not having won their first match since 2012.
The challenge for MI this time will be finding momentum quickly, without the home advantage, and they don’t have the enviable record at Wankhede Stadium to bank upon. MI will stay in Chennai, playing their next four matches on a sluggish surface before playing four more group games in Delhi, also known for slow pitches. It doesn’t play to their strengths as an intimidating batting unit and a quality pace attack.
“We’re going to have to adapt to this wicket,” Australian opener Chris Lynn, who top-scored for MI on Friday with a 35-ball 49, said in the press conference. “It’s going to be quite challenging and tricky from the batting point of view with five games here (Chennai). The next four games are going to be tricky.”
