Defending champions Mumbai Indians again carry the tag of favourites going into a fresh IPL season starting on Friday. The main reason is that there is hardly any chink in their armour—the batting line-up is the best in the eight-team field and the bowling unit is as good as any of its rivals.
But there is no home advantage this edition as teams have been distributed to neutral venues as per a caravan bio-bubble model IPL bosses has adopted. (Fans will also stay away as authorities grapple with a spike in Covid cases). MI will have to rethink bowling strategy, especially on using spinners.
Over the years, at the pace-friendly Wankhede Stadium, MI have banked on speedsters to provide breakthroughs and spinners to do the holding job. With Rohit Sharma’s side playing nine matches in Chennai (5 games) and New Delhi (4 games) where pitches are conducive to spin, their spinners will have a more attacking role to play than in previous seasons.
Experts have held in the past that MI are weak in the spin department compared to Delhi Capitals—they have R Ashwin, Axar Patel and Amit Mishra—or Chennai Super Kings—Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir and K Gowtham play for them—this season.
{{/usCountry}}Experts have held in the past that MI are weak in the spin department compared to Delhi Capitals—they have R Ashwin, Axar Patel and Amit Mishra—or Chennai Super Kings—Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir and K Gowtham play for them—this season.
{{/usCountry}}For MI, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar and left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya have been the mainstays over the last two seasons. They have done reasonably well bowling in the middle overs though on the Chennai and New Delhi pitches, they may have to the lead from front.
Neither did well in the limited-overs series against England at home. Chahar went for 33 runs in three overs in the last T20 (India won to clinch the series) while Pandya conceded 72 in six overs in the second ODI, in which Ben Stokes hit a 52-ball 99 in a six-wicket win.
Over the last three seasons, pacers have taken the most wickets for MI, who are seeking a hat-trick of title wins. In IPL 2020 in the UAE, Jasprit Bumrah (27) and Trent Boult (25) were the top wicket-takers. In 2019, Bumrah (19) and Lasith Malinga (16) were their top bowlers and in 2018 Hardik Pandya (18) and Bumrah (17) were on top of the list.
Ex-India players Sanjay Manjrekar and Deep Dasgupta, while analysing the strengths and weaknesses of MI for espncricinfo.com, pointed to spin as the only possible weak area as they kick-off their campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
“They will be playing nine of their (14) matches in Chennai and Delhi, so that will create some kind of a challenge for them,” said former India stumper Dasgupta.
To add experience, MI bought leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for ₹2.4 crore in this year’s auction. MI have off-spinner Jayant Yadav and left-arm spinner Anukul Roy as back-up.
In terms of experience, Chawla is the best—he is the third-highest wicket-taker in IPL with 156 scalps—but the question is whether he will be able to deliver? Over the last three seasons, his average economy rate has been 8.82.
Whether he plays regularly or not remains to be seen, but Zaheer Khan, MI Director of Cricket Operations, feels besides “experience”, Chawla brings his ability to “bowl with the new ball”.
“That’s not an easy task for any bowler, particularly if you’re a spinner, that too a wrist spinner. That is something which he has been doing fantastically well. That certainly caught our eyes when we looked at Piyush,” the former India pacer said after the auction.
Skipper Rohit Sharma too has high expectations from Chawla. “He is a very attacking bowler, which is something we wanted in our spin bowling department. It was a good buy. He knows the format, he knows the opposition,” Sharma said in a MI video post on Twitter.
Former India ‘keeper Parthiv Patel feels having Chawla will help MI, especially with the team starting the campaign in Chennai. “He knows how to bowl on the Chennai wicket, or on slow and low wickets. I think MI have covered all the bases. That's what champions do, even after winning a tournament they try and fill spots and that's exactly what MI have done," he said in a show on Star Sports.
MI don't like to tinker much with their line-up, so it will be interesting to see whether they stick to Chahar and Pandya for the third season in a row, or bring in Chawla for one of them or play all three spinners.