Head coach Mahela Jayawardene on Sunday said Mumbai Indians have the quality to beat any team but need to “tidy up” in all areas and be ruthless and clinical, ahead of their IPL clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru here. IPL’s perennial slow-starters Mumbai Indians are currently eighth in the points table after three defeats in four matches, but hope to turn around their fortunes with the return of Jasprit Bumrah in the side. Jayawardene said Mumbai Indians are not top-heavy but the experience that they have in their batting line-up differentiates them from the others.
“The luxury that we have in our lineup is that we have the quality in Surya, Tilak and Hardik in the middle order. Maybe the experience that we have is something that some of the other teams might not have,” he told the media before MI’s training.
“We’re not that top-heavy. We’ve got a lot of capped players in the top order as well as in the lineup so, I don’t see the game, for us at least, going that way.” “Yes, there are some games (in which) your top-order will click, like the way we played against Calcutta (KKR) here on the wicket and then there are some instances where we’ve (been) thrown the challenge that we lost,” he added.
Jayawardene said MI need to be more ruthless and clinical in their approach, like they showed against Kolkata Knight Riders last week.
“We have the quality to beat a team from many situations. We just need to be a bit more ruthless, clinical in some instances. I’m not putting it on just batting, because even in bowling we could have controlled things a bit better,” he said.
“We wouldn’t have given those 20 runs extra on the field. These are areas that we’re trying to tidy up and try and be much more consistent all around.” “It is a tough tournament, we all know that. The margins are very small. We just need to try and be a bit more ruthless,” he said.
Jayawardene did not read much into the “taboo” mode of Tilak Varma’s dismissal — retired out against Lucknow Super Giants — and expressed confidence that the batter will continue to deliver for MI.
“I know it’s created by everyone. But the modern day is much more tactical. We keep changing batting line-ups to match certain bowling line-ups and all that. I don’t see how different that is,” he said.
“As a batsman, I’ve had times where you go to bat and then you struggle to get through and they bowl well to you, it’s a combination of that.” “He batted very well for us in the last three games, (in) tough situations like we’ve lost wickets early that and we’ve built those partnerships and got us to situations that we need to. That’s what his role with that experience, what he brings to the game and I still value that.” Jayawardene said it was his decision to retire out Tilak and send in Mitchell Santner towards the end of their chase against LSG.
“He was trying and he wasn’t able to get going. I just felt that, it was my decision to throw someone else to get those two hits and Mitch has done that in the last few games. He was in decent form.
“I needed (someone to come up with) two hits to get to that 15 runs or 20 runs which we needed in that last over, so it was just a punt.
“It has nothing to do with Tilak. I’m sure he’ll walk in here tomorrow and he’ll win the match for us, that’s who Tilak is for us and there’s a lot of value for him in our camp.” Meanwhile, former MI player and now with RCB, Tim David hoped to fire against his former franchise.
“It’s a wonderful place to play at the Wankhede, (I) love batting here, it’s a nice place to have as your home ground, (though) it’s not my home ground anymore. Hopefully I get a chance to do some damage out there in the middle tomorrow night,” he said.
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