 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Opener Ishan Kishan's horror run with the bat in IPL 2022 is a big concern for the Mumbai Indians.
It has come to a point where the five-time IPL champions might be pondering dropping the left-hander or change his batting position in a desperate bid to end their losing run.
Kishan, who became the most expensive signing at the IPL 2022 players auction after he was signed up by the Mumbai Indians for Rs 15.25 crore (Rs 152.5 million), has scored just 199 runs in eight games at a strike rate of 108.
After beginning the tournament with quickfire fifties in MI's first two games, Kishan has registered scores of 14, 26, 3, 13, 0 and 8 in his last six innings.
What must worry Coach Mahela Jayawardene is that the normally aggressive Kishan's strike rate in those last six innings is a lowly 62 -- clearly underlining the pressure of the huge price tag on the young batter.
After losing to Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday, Mahela revealed he will speak to Kishan, who despite being given complete freedom has failed to come good with the bat.
'He has struggled a bit, we have given him the freedom to play his natural game. I haven't yet spoken to him today, but I will have a conversation with him soon,' Mahela said after Mumbai's eighth straight loss in IPL 2022, which all but ended the team's chances of making it to the play-offs.
Asked if he would consider making a few changes in the coming matches to halt MI's losing run, Mahela said: 'Batting has been a concern for us especially on good wickets where we have batted under par. This is a senior group who understands the conditions and performed in the past. We need to keep pushing and if we need to make those changes we will do that.'
'We wanted to keep the batting consistent. Obviously there are concerns as we have not been consistent whether we are batting first or chasing totals down.'
Tilak Varma (272 runs) and Suryakumar Yadav (239 runs) are the only two MI batters who have gone past the 200 run mark in IPL 2022.
Captain Rohit Sharma has struggled with the bat, with 153 runs from eight games without a single half-century, while veteran Kieron Pollard is even worse with 115 runs at an average of 16.