Five-time champions Mumbai Indians are known to have slow starts in IPL but what they are facing in IPL 2022 is something no one expected. They have faced defeats against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals in their first four games of the season. MI is a champion side and is known to make brilliant comebacks into the league but it is going to be do-or-die situation for Rohit Sharma's side soon if they don't get back on winning ways.
The thing that is haunting MI team management the most is spending too much in IPL 2022 auction on players that are unavailable. But Mumbai just can not do anything about it now. They will have to field their best available playing XI and get back on winning ways.
Opening - Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan
Ishan Kishan has lived up to the expectation by scoring 175 runs in first four matches of the league. The team management will be very happy with his current form as he has hit two fifties in the season so far. However, the management will expect him to make a big score in the upcoming matches and covert a fifty into a big hundred. His partner and captain Rohit scored 40 odd runs in the opening match of his side against Delhi Capitals but after that game the talisman has failed to provide Mumbai with a good start.
Middle Order - Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma
With the inclusion of Suryakumar Yadav in the middle order after facing defeats in the first two games MI is looking solid side. Under 19 star Dewald Brevis has shown a glimpse of form in the last few matches while Tilak Varma also rosed to the occasion in recent games. The left-hand batsman has the ability to hit the ball long way and is capable of playing big shots from the word go.
All-rounders - Kieron Pollard, Ramandeep Singh
Mumbai Indians are known to have many all-rounders in their ranks. After letting go of Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya the team has struggled with their lower-middle order. Kieron Pollard is not in his top form as he has scored just 47 runs in four games including a golden duck in the last game against RCB. Ramandeep Singh, who made his debut in the last game, could just score six runs in 12 balls.
Bowling attack - Murugan Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills
The leg spinner M Ashwin has been impressive with the ball in the season so far. He has picked four wickets in four games with an exciting economy of 7.76. However, he did not receive any help from anyone else in the bowling attack. Rohit is left with the question whether to use Bumrah upfront to take wickets or save his overs for death. Tymal Mills is likely to make a comeback into the game so that MI can use him and Jaydev Unadkat in the powerplay and bowl Bumrah in death overs.
