Champions League T20 2013: Mumbai Indians - Tactical Analysis and quick-fixes

Destruction of Ambati Rayudu – the T20 cricketer:

MI cannot afford to have Ambati Rayudu and not use him properly.

Ambati Rayudu started off IPL6 batting at number five and was demoted to number 6 after the first couple of matches, in favour of Kieron Pollard.

A T20 batsman of Rayudu’s breed cannot do much coming in at number 5. I do rate him highly, but he has to be used at a position which suits him in order to draw the maximum output from the Hyderabadi batsman.

In fact, that is the way most batsmen are, not everyone is Brad Hodge (His role with Rajasthan Royals is one of the boldest tactical moves of late I have ever seen, although I don’t agree with it. Hodge has delivered for his team time and again coming in at number 5 or 6 as compared to his usual position in top 3 for all the other T20 teams he has been a part of) or say, quite obviously, AB de Villiers.

Coming back to Rayudu, his strengths lie in taking on the spinners and making the opposition captain think twice before bringing a slow bowler into the attack, besides anchoring the innings. I have no idea how these qualities would be of any use coming in at number 5 in T20s. And when he gets to face more deliveries, he will most probably be resurrecting an innings that has lost its direction.

Needless to say, a big misfit he will be at number six, where, as a batsman, the probability of facing even 10 deliveries is reduced, leave alone the probability of facing spinners and anchoring an innings. It is not a surprise that his returns were so poor last season – 265 runs in 17 innings at an average of 18.92 and a strike-rate of 114.71.

While Pollard reaped huge benefits as a result of his promotion, scoring 420 runs in 18 innings as against his returns of 273, 146 and 220 in his previous three seasons with MI, Rayudu’s 265 at an appalling strike rate was a downward trend as against 356, 395 and 333 in his previous three outings in IPL.

If a strategy paves way for one of your players to reap the rewards, no matter how big a player he is, and completely nullifies the effect of another equally valuable player, it simply can’t be right.

This move was actually facilitated to accommodate Dinesh Karthik at number 3 which makes Rayudu the ultimate scapegoat (not to forget, dumping the wicketkeeping duties on him the season before) to fit MI’s requirements.

The Glenn Maxwell goof up:

So, considering all the above possible barriers they are set to face in this CLT20, Mumbai Indians’ season hopes can either boom or bust depending on how effectively they employ their batting resources and whom they chose to replace Malinga with.

I am quite surprised to see that Nathan Coulter-Nile is not even in contention for the spot. Almost everyone is talking about Glenn Maxwell filling in. Although Maxwell is quite a valuable asset in this format of the game and on the type of pitches CLT20 is about to be played on (expect them to be conducive to batting and support, if any, will be available to fast bowlers in the powerplay overs).

But how does that even matter when he does not come into play at all? Maxwell will be slotted in at number 7, as certainly even by Mumbai’s standards, they will not be activating the scapegoat option again to demote Rayudu further. If they do, why have him at all?

It leaves them with the possibility of wasting two of their batsmen who could have greater impact when used the right way.

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Edited by Staff Editor