IPL Exit Interviews

The teams heading home

Let us look at the teams who have been sent home early from the IPL, and their exit interviews. 

We will use the team map method to show you just how bad they have been. 

Remember, bowling is on the right, and you want to be inside the green line, and batting is on the left, and you want to be outside it. However, as these are teams going home, it may not end up that way. 

#1 Mumbai Indians

We need to look beyond the latest game where they seemed to give up all their batters through a tragically hilarious set of circumstances.

But before that, what did they do? Well, they were very close to being par all the way through. I love how uniform they look. There is no zone they are elite, but also none where they suck arse. It’s one of the most symmetrical team maps I have ever seen. Slightly ahead of part with the bat, and slightly worse with the ball.

And while it doesn’t scream, finalist, it does suggest that while it might have felt like they were lucky - getting Delhi in a must-win match early in the season, the whole RCB last game, and the 5/5 thing - they actually had a good all-round game.

But they’re not a bowling team. One place they struggle is taking wickets early on, Jofra being half an Archer, and no Bumrah is the biggest issue here. Behrendorff had an ok season, but not quite the impact they would have loved. Their middle bowling is a little better, even if they’re clearly not good at it. And considering it was because their 103-year-old spinner who doesn’t play IPL any more had a season where he took a buttload of wickets, you wonder how much of that was inspired, and how much dumb luck. Either way, Piyush Chawla kept their middle overs ok. The death is probably the worst period, which makes sense because of the lack of wickets. Remember that Jofra and Jasprit didn’t play, but even those two would struggle with the lack of wickets taken earlier on.

They didn’t lose wickets in the top, this is probably their big blip, but you can see the runs per over are not that great. But they also don’t lose wickets again in the middle. And there is now a bump there. Surya is a decent part of that as well, but it also comes from top-order players not losing any wickets. At the death, they continue to save wickets, but the wire thing is, that despite having so many in the bag, their economy is not great here. It should be much better.

The first thing I would say to them is that this was an overperforming year, and they shouldn’t think that this means they have developed quicker. Just some things fell into place for them.

Because the worst thing would be them looking at this as them being within a Tim David drop of Shubman Gill from the finals. The first eliminator had one of those games, and RCB probably should have been in the finals as well. That doesn’t mean they don’t view this as. Positive season, just one where they still have a lot to fix.

But they should be wondering why their batting hasn’t capitalised on the fact they barely lost wickets all year. Something about that is off for me.

They still need a better spinner, or at least, someone better to pair with Piyush Chawla if he somehow does this again. Do they also need another gun overseas fast bowler in case Jasprit or Jofra are injured again, which at this point looks likely?

I also think their depth is wrong. Looking at their substitutes versus Gujarat’s in the playoff, I was thinking that these two teams are different leagues in terms of depth.

And the biggest question is probably Rohit Sharma. His last plus season was in 2016. We’ve had Mohit, Ajinkya and Piyush do incredible comebacks this year, but do you want that to be your best chance of getting fast runs out of the man at the top?

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