When a team captain can't point to one misfiring department in his side that has to be addressed right now, it's a worrying situation. Soon after the Mumbai Indians' fourth straight loss at the start of IPL 2022, the subject was put to Rohit Sharma, who admitted that his team lacked 'a collective performance with both bat and ball.'
The fact that Mumbai Indians' batting line-up came unstuck on a two-paced pitch in Pune will demand serious examination, excepting a blistering rearguard from Suryakumar Yadav, who brought the five-time champions to a decent albeit under-par total. Even more so after dropping to 62 for 5 after a 50 for no-loss start. Despite Suryakumar's valiant efforts, Mumbai Indians were always in trouble in the middle overs after a Rohit-led opening salvo.
"It was just the combination that we felt would be ideal on certain pitches and certain opposition. We wanted to strengthen our batting, unfortunately we had few overseas guys who were unavailable, so we wanted to get the best from whatever we had," Rohit said without disclosing the reason for the absentees."
"There are still 10 league matches to go. So we gotta get on a roll," Zaheer said. "You've seen in this tournament teams get on a roll, either losing or winning. It's just the matter of the first win. There are times you get tight as well, you will start doubting yourselves in situations where the pressure is highest. So that is something which we have to be aware of. And look for that spark in the group. Not every day is going to be your day, but the individuals who are having a good day, will need to carry the team and get us that win which is going to be very important."