Five Time Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have had abysmal start to their 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign as the Mumbai based side have lost all their five matches with the latest defeat coming against Punjab Kings. MI are currently bottom of the points table and could miss out on playoff spots for consicutive seasons.
This rough start for MI has raised eyebrows but the former Australian all-rounder and Delhi Capitals assistant coach Shane Watson is surprised at all. The Aussie said MI got it all wrong in the auctions. The former cricketer has questioned MI’s auction strategy and their decision to spend a whopping RS 15.25 Crores of salary on Ishan Kishan, claiming that the move has affected the overall balance of squad.
“It hasn’t surprised me that Mumbai Indians are at the bottom of the table because they had a shocking auction,” Watson said during a conversation in ‘The Grade Cricketer’ podcast.
“Spending so much money on Ishan Kishan…He is a very talented and skillful player, but he’s not worth blowing nearly your whole salary on.
Kishan has scored a total of 178 runs in the five matches he has played with his best innings came against Delhi Capitals where he scored 81*.
Watson added that their decision to send additional RS 8 crore to buy Jofra Archer, who is still recovering from elbow surgery was a blunder too.
“And then, going for Jofra Archer, not knowing whether he is going to come back in. He hasn’t played cricket for quite a while. They have got quite a few holes in the team.”
Winless so far in five matches, the former champions have struggling to put together a winning combination. They retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard in the IPL 2022 mega auctions but the players have failed to create an impact so far.
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However, Suryakumar Yadav has urged the the fans to show some patience as the side are currently undergoing a transition phase and has said the results can only be seen in the next few season as the team is working on turning young talents into finished products.