With the recent defeat of the Mumbai Indians to the Lucknow SuperGiants, they are finding themselves on the edge of elimination from the race of player-offs in the Indian Premier League season 2024. The five-time Champions are struggling as they failed to post a competitive total, managing only 144 runs before succumbing to the LSG chase. This defeat marked their seventh defeat in 10 matches of this ongoing season of the IPL.
Criticism has been directed toward the leadership of Hardik Pandya and the inconsistent performance of the Mumbai Indians with both bat and ball throughout the season. There were scattered contributions from the former captain of the franchise, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma with the bat, but the team is lacking collective efforts from other batsmen, whereas Jasprit Bumrah has stood out as their main wicket taker. The lack of cohesive team effort has left MI struggling to find their rhythm and string together victories in the league.
Irfan Pathan who is the former cricketer of India while talking about the poor run of form of Mumbai Indians said that because of management failure the team is not able to perform effectively. Pathan highlighted the contrast with the previous seasons, where under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians navigated their way to the playoffs even in the absence of important players like Jasprit Bumrah.
Irfan wrote on his official X, “Mumbai Indians that qualified last year did not have key players like Jasprit Bumrah, but in the season they are having his services, and still they are in a bad situation, mainly because the team is not being managed well on the ground. There are a number of mistakes by their captain Hardik Pandya, and this is the truth.”
With only 4 games remaining in the season, the team is present at the night spot in the IPL 2024 table and is only 4 points away from the 4th-place Chennai Super Kings, who have played an extra match.
Hardik is named as a vice captain in the 15-member squad of Team India for the T20 World Cup, which is going to begin on June 1st, with Team India starting their campaign against Ireland on June 5.
