What Mumbai Indians should do to make it to the playoffs

It’s that time in an IPL season when teams start consolidating and look to make it to the playoffs. By this stage, every team have played either eight or nine games and are aware of what their strengths, weaknesses are and areas where they need to work on.

Every team has been propelled by performances of their star players. Most teams who sit at the top of the table have found a winning combination and generally don’t tinker with the playing XI often.

Mumbai Indians have had a very interesting season so far. They have dominated in the games they have won, and in the other games, they just haven’t been able to finish games off as they expected. Some of their key players who are known to close out close encounters from their franchise such as Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell McClenaghan have had a lean IPL so far.

Mumbai Indians pulled off a fantastic morale-boosting victory against KXIP at Indore where Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya finished the game in style. Rohit Sharma demoted himself in the batting order which proved to be a good move as it gave MI the winning momentum they require, as they need to win their remaining five games to make it to the playoffs.

It’s not going to be easy for Mumbai, but in 2015, they overcame the same hurdles to win the IPL trophy, although things are slightly different for them this season. Still, if they do get certain things sorted out, they still can make it to the playoffs.

Rohit Sharma must bat at the number 3 position

Rohit Sharma - The key to Mumbai Indian's success

It’s a known fact that every team’s best batsmen must have the most balls to face in a T20 game. What has been surprising is to see Rohit Sharma, who is MI’s best batsman, push himself down the order and bat at the number 4 slot.

With Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav blazing away at the top of the order, it wouldn’t be the right decision for Rohit Sharma to open the innings. It’s better to go with what’s best for the team and push himself down the order.

Ishan Kishan has found himself batting ahead of his skipper. He has clicked in a couple of games but on the whole, hasn’t been able to make the number 3 position his own. Rohit Sharma has found it hard to get going in this new role.

It’s about time, with Kishan getting out for ducks twice in the last three games, that the experiment must end. Rohit must bat at the number 3 position followed by Ishan Kishan.

MI have lost 6 games so far, and their captain has got scores of 20 or less in all the games. In games where Rohit Sharma has batted long enough to cross fifty twice, he has looked in fine touch, and more importantly his team has gone on to win those games.

With no other choice but to win their remaining games and hope that certain results go in their favour in order to make it to the playoffs, MI need to play to their strength which is by giving their skipper Rohit Sharma more time at the crease.

MI were able to get away with Krunal Pandya's brilliance at the end of the innings against KXIP, but a sure way of putting up a match-winning score or chasing down totals is by having their best batsman get as much time at the crease as possible.

MI need to sort out their middle-order woes

One of the main reasons for MI’s dismal run in this IPL has been the complete failure of their middle-order. The side has depended too much on the top four batsmen and that’s not a good sign at all.

The likes of Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard have been huge disappointments. None of them have taken the responsibility on their shoulders to finish an innings. All of them have looked out of touch and have given away their wicket very easily on most occasions.

MI have tried to tinker with their middle-order by pushing Rohit Sharma to the number 4 position, to add stability to their misfiring middle-order but to no avail. They took the big call of dropping their match-winner Kieron Pollard to include JP Duminy in their side.

With JP Duminy in their side, it adds more solidity to their middle order. The Pandya brothers need to come in the latter half of the innings to flourish. They have found themselves coming in a bit too early for their comfort which has exposed their technical fragilities.

Lot was expected from Hardik Pandya as he has become a regular face in all the three versions for India lately, but he just hasn’t delivered. He has leaked too many runs and apart from the fifty he hit in their last match, his bat hasn’t talked when it has mattered.

MI would want the likes of Ishan Kishan, JP Duminy to consolidate on the start provided by Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma and then hope the big-hitting all-rounders in the Pandya brothers and Pollard/Cutting can close the innings with a flourish in their remaining six games.

Krunal Pandya's return to hitting ways against KXIP holds good for MI as they are in a position where they need to win all their remaining games in order to make it to the playoffs. Krunal is the kind of player who feeds on confidence, and his match-winning effort against the quality bowling line-up of KXIP would have bolstered his confidence without any doubt.

MI’s bowling, their death bowling has let them down

MI as a bowling unit have been competitive thus far. The likes of Mayank Markande and Krunal Pandya have been very good this IPL, especially young Markande who has spun his way to success this IPL.

It’s the middle overs and the death overs where MI have found themselves in an RCB like situation - they have the runs on the board but the bowling has let them down. Hardik Pandya has been extremely expensive, Jasprit Bumrah has been good but hasn’t picked wickets when required and their foreign recruits, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ben Cutting and Muztafizur Rahman have conceded too many runs.

It’s a combination of batsmen from the other teams figuring out the strengths of MI’s bowlers and the fact that the bowlers having an off-season which is the reason why MI are at the bottom of the table.

Looking ahead, they should back Muztafizur Rahman to come good over McClenaghan and pick Ben Cutting in place of Kieron Pollard in their side. There is always place for variation and deception in the IPL and ‘The Fizz’ and Ben Cutting can provide MI with much-needed relief.

Rohit Sharma needs to back Jasprit Bumrah to bowl the 20th over of the innings. He has gone in with three bowlers Mustafizur Rahman, Mitchell McClenaghan and Hardik Pandya to bowl the last over in their last three outings. Each of the overs went for more than twenty runs.

It is a cause of concern as especially yesterday night against KXIP, the bowling unit was very efficient in curtailing the KXIP batsman. The game slipped away when Hardik Pandya leaked 22 runs of the last over. MI must find a solution to end this disturbing trend, and the best solution would be to bowl Jasprit Bumrah the 20th over to close the innings in MI's favour.

The win against KXIP has given MI the winning momentum they were looking for. They just need to carry forward the good work they have done into their remaining games and it will definitely give them an opportunity to make it to the playoffs of VIVO IPL 2018.