Tymal Mills (L) and Daniel Sams in action for Mumbai in IPL 2022. (P.C.:iplt20.com)
Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that despite having a weak bowling attack, Mumbai Indians (MI) need to back their bowlers to make a strong comeback.
The likes of Daniel Sams and Tymal Mills have been expensive overall in the tournament so far. Both were dropped against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and yet the Men in Blue and Gold didn’t win the game.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Virender Sehwag explained why although Mumbai are thin on quality bowling options, they need to back their resources. He said:
“They can play [Riley] Meredith, he has the potential. Even Mills has the potential but it’s important to see how long you can stick to a player when he gets smashed.”
Sehwag added:
“If you can give 5-6 games to a batter then you should also give the bowler a chance to make a comeback. You can divide the teams and play a bowler only against some particular teams.”
Sehwag also feels Mumbai need to rely on their experienced players to deliver. He also gave an example of how the Chennai Super Kings’ aging side won two titles because of their experience. opining:
“Generally in pressure situations, experience matters and that is exactly what Chennai’s ‘Daddy Army’ did in their title-winning seasons.”
Former Indian pacer RP Singh also gave his opinion on the bowling options that Mumbai have. He feels that whoever gets the chance must be ready to take the burden of picking wickets with the new ball off Jasprit Bumrah.
RP Singh feels the lack of wicket-taking options has hampered Bumrah’s ability to set up the batter. He reckons the 28-year-old is trying too hard to provide breakthroughs for his team. He said:
“Riley Meredith is an option but you need to see whether he will form that strike partnership with Bumrah. If that doesn’t happen then there’s not much a bowler alone could do.”
Singh went on to add:
“As we saw in the last game, Bumrah went straightaway to his best ball which was a yorker in the first over, and didn’t have time to think about setting up the batter or varying his length.”
Virender Sehwag on why MI should have played Daniel Sams against RCB
Australian all-rounder Daniel Sams is having a horrible IPL 2022 with the ball as he leaked runs in all three games that he played. He also conceded a staggering 35 runs in one over against Pat Cummins as the latter smashed the joint-fastest IPL fifty of 14 balls.
While Mumbai dropped Sams in the last game, Virender Sehwag reckons his batting ability would have given Suryakumar Yadav a bit more support. The 43-year-old believes Sams could have been more effective than Ramandeep Singh with the bat. He stated:
“If Ramandeep Singh was a batter who could bowl a bit, what was wrong with playing Sams? He will leak runs while bowling but in the last game, MI needed him with the bat. When wickets were falling, he could have come and made a partnership with Suryakumar Yadav and could have taken MI to a respectable total.”
It will be interesting to see whether the five-time IPL champions can show faith in some of their bowlers who have already proved to be quite expensive. They take on the Punjab Kings tonight (April 13).
