'Will you ask Sehwag not to open?': Former India cricketers baffled with MI's batting approach against PBKS
IPL 2021: After being sent in to bat, MI lost Quinton de Kock early and went into a shell. They scored only 21 runs in the powerplay at the loss of 1 wicket.
Former India cricketers Virender Sehwag and Ajay Jadeja were left baffled by Mumbai Indians’ tactics while batting against Punjab Kings in an IPL 2021 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Mumbai on Friday, which MI lost by 9 wickets.
After being sent in to bat, MI lost Quinton de Kock early and went into a shell. For some reason, Ishan Kishan was promoted up the batting order at no. 3 over Suryakumar Yadav. After early dismissal, MI scored only 21 runs in the powerplay at the loss of 1 wicket.
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At the end of 10 overs, the Rohit Sharma-led side was struggling at 49 for 2. This meant they needed a big finish but even that didn’t happen as the likes of Kieron Pollard, Hardik, and Krunal Pandya failed to get the big shots going and MI were restricted with 131 for 6.
Sehwag said Suryakumar Yadav, who was the in-form cricketer, should have batted at his usual No.3 spot ahead of Ishan Kishan.
“The kind of form Suryakumar was in, he hit a fifty earlier, perhaps he could have taken more advantage of the powerplay. See, even he could’ve gotten out early but he had better chances.
“You are sending someone who hasn’t scored runs in 4 matches with hope that he will get you runs but you are demoting someone who has scored 2-3 out of your last 4 games. When 2-3 wickets fall quickly then there is pressure on that in-form player too.
“It would have been better had they sent Suryakumar early in the powerplay. He could have given the necessary momentum to the innings,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
Suryakumar scored 33 off 27 balls while Rohit scored 63 off 52.
“The only good thing for MI was that Rohit and Suryakumar batted till the 15-16th over. They thought their big-hitters would play fearless cricket in the backend of the innings but that didn’t happen,” Sehwag said.
Ajay Jadeja echoed Sehwag’s views and said Suryakumar should have batted at No.3.
“We were saying that MI are not playing well but they were scoring 150 at least but today they played well but got only 130. This was beyond me. You can play poorly, get out early but they came out today with their shutters closed, which is not their style of batting.
“If we lose 2-3 early wickets in the powerplay then it’s understandable but not in this case.
“Then you don’t send your in-form player Suryakumar Yadav at 3. Tell me, would you ask Virender Sehwag not to open and bat down the order?” he added.