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Follow UsNovember 2020. The Mumbai Indians looked invincible. They became the first and, until then, the only team to finish at the top of the points table of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in two consecutive years. A week later, they became the only team to lift the trophy five times—five times in the space of eight years.
Three years later, the heyday of Mumbai Indians’ invincibility is behind them. On the contrary, no team has had a worse win percentage than them in the current cycle, which started with a mega auction in 2022. They have been the first team to be eliminated in two of the last three seasons.
What constituted a free fall from grace were multiple reasons on and off the field.
Non-performing big bets
For 15 years of the existence of the IPL till 2022, the most the Mumbai Indians spent on a player was on Rohit Sharma, roughly INR 9.2 crore in dollar value in 2011. And the CAGR on that investment might beat many other investments made by their owners in that period.
In the period of their dominance, Mumbai Indians decorated the growing tower of their glory by finding diamonds in the dust. Scouted players like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya were the backbone of the team.
2022 saw a shift in Mumbai’s approach. Ishan Kishan announced himself in the IPL 2020 by hitting more sixes. A rough season for Mumbai in 2021 was rougher for Kishan, who was dropped twice as he averaged 13.4 at a strike rate of a mere 87 across eight games separated by five months and two countries. Though he only batted in the middle-order for them till then. Mumbai gave him a go as an opener in the last two games of the season. Kishan went on to smash 134 in the two knocks at an otherworldly rate of 235.1.
This was enough for Mumbai’s think tank to break the bank for him in 2022. Splurging INR 15.25 crore on him, they crossed the 10-crore barrier in an auction for the first time. The idea of maybe replicating the framework of 2011 and finding a long-term opener and a successor to Rohit has fallen on the face.
As a pair, Mumbai’s openers have been the slowest and have averaged the second-worst among all teams since 2022. In investment parlance, the Rohit-Kishan combo has come at the valuation of a market leader blue-chip firm but has operated like an outdated low-risk, low-reward public sector undertaking. Both are equally responsible for these returns since neither has been among the top-20 openers on average and top-30 on strike rate in this period.
What Mumbai spent on Kishan was the highest they ever spent in an auction but also the highest any team spent on a player in that auction. Since they had retained Rohit for INR 16 crore and Bumrah for 12, they spent roughly half of their purse limit (43.25 of 90) on three players. This was already the most for any side. Mumbai made it steeper by adding Jofra Archer - who was ruled out for 2022 and was facing an uncertain future as a top-level cricketer - for INR 8 crore.
Given a Warren Buffet-like reputation that Mumbai enjoyed for investing in the right players, the move to spend on Archer was hailed as a masterstroke in some quarters. The prospect of Bumrah and Archer bowling in tandem was mouthwatering for Mumbai loyalists and frightening for everyone else. Mumbai sacrificed the 2022 season as they lost their first eight games.
As it turned out, Mumbai’s punt on Archer was a pure gamble. The right-arm pacer continues to be in recovery mode and has been completely out of professional cricket. He did turn up for Mumbai in the 2023 season but went missing in action for three weeks after just the first game. He played four more games later but took only two wickets while giving away runs at nearly 10 an over. Since Bumrah missed the 2023 season owing to a back injury, the dream pairing of Archer and Bumrah never saw the light of day. Archer was released ahead of the 2024 season.
Spending 51.25 crore on effectively three players resulted in Mumbai having the lowest purse to invest in a bowling attack. This has reflected in the performance of their bowling unit as they have been the second-worst on economy and bowling average among all teams in the past three seasons. The inexperience of their bowling attack is evident since they have conceded the most number of extras: most wides (287) and the second-most no-balls (26).
This is despite the presence of Bumrah who has pretty much been a cheat code no matter how batter-friendly the tournament has been. If we take Bumrah out of the calculations, Mumbai Indians have been the worst bowling unit by a distance. It was the exact opposite in the preceding cycle.
Mumbai’s biggest buy to date, Cameron Green (INR 17.5 crore in 2023, traded to RCB in 2024 to accommodate Hardik), was their second-best batter in 2023, but neither he nor Hardik could quell their bowling woes. The impact player rule also meant that the value of having a high-quality all-rounder was not as big an advantage anymore.
Such a big spend on all-rounders meant even fewer funds for proper bowlers. As a result, Mumbai had to compromise on a quality spin attack while also being unable to replicate the formula of success during their peak: pairing Bumrah with a gun new-ball bowler.
An unforeseen event that had a lasting impact was the timing of Kieron Pollard’s retirement. Credit to him for a proactive call after a forgettable 2022 season, but given he used up one of the four privileged retention spots just a year back, Mumbai could not use it to retain Trent Boult. The Kiwi pacer matched Bumrah toe to toe in the winning campaign of 2020 and returned with figures of 9/96 in 14 overs in four games against MI’s challenger that season and also the team that traded him to Mumbai: Delhi Capitals.
With their eyes set on saving money for Kishan, Mumbai could not outbid Rajasthan for Boult in the 2022 auction. Ironically, he was sold at the same price as Jofra Archer.
So badly have Mumbai missed Boult’s services that they have tried and tested nine different left-arm pacers in the last three seasons. Boult, meanwhile, has been the second-highest wicket-taker in the powerplay in this period. With no wicket-taking options outside Bumrah, Mumbai have been the worst bowling side in overs 7-20, even with Bumrah in the XI.
Questionable player usage
Of late, the route to success in an IPL season has been to find the ideal XI at the earliest. It is the sides languishing at the bottom-half of the table that chop and change a lot. From the side whose XI could have been predicted before the first ball of every game in 2020, Mumbai have been in constant churn in the last three years.
In 2022, Mumbai lost conviction in the ability of Tim David - bought for INR 8.25 crore that year - just after two games. Inclusion of Dewald Brevis meant that Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai’s most successful number three ever, batted as low as five in one game. Once the hype around Brevis fizzled away, David returned for the last six games and struck at 230.7 while averaging 57.7. All four of Mumbai’s wins that season came in those six games.
Mumbai finished a respectable third in 2023. This was also the only season when they had a semblance of conviction in their batting-order. Even then, they were able to identify the right usage for Green at number three only after four games and two losses.
The impact player rule and an injury to Tilak Varma helped Mumbai unearth Nehal Wadhera, who enjoyed reasonable success for a debutant in 2023. However, come 2024, despite Suryakumar Yadav's unavailability to begin with, Mumbai chose others, even debutant Naman Dhir, over Wadhera in their first eight games.
While Hardik's woeful form in both departments has hurt Mumbai badly in 2024, they did little to help themselves by failing to identify the right batting position for their new captain. He has batted at all positions from four to seven this season. The lack of clarity was evident against Chennai when Hardik walked out to bat with 77 needed off the last six overs ahead of the designated finisher, David, who was left fuming in the dugout.
Since 2022, Mumbai could have been level-headed in their thinking by using SKY and Tilak at three or four to maintain the LHB-RHB combo based on who gets out first among the openers. Trying to force-fit a number three even after releasing Green has relegated Tilak- the player averaging second-best after SKY in this squad - to number five. The fact that Mumbai have lost all six games when Tilak has scored 50+ is more of a reflection on them not utilizing the 21-year-old better.
The less we talk about the churn in their bowling department the better. In these three seasons, Mumbai have ended up using 38 different bowlers. This is a staggering 12 more than any other side.
Them using only two overseas players in a few games might look good on optics. But it is a symbol of lopsided recruitment where they have accumulated too many overseas resources of a similar kind (left-arm pacers in this case) instead of a couple of crucial roles: a quality left-arm spinner or a backup wicketkeeper.
Divisive succession plan
It must have come as a rude shock to Mumbai’s owners when what they perceived as a practical future-oriented succession plan was seen as a ruthless coup by the fans.
What made it worse was a public display of disappointment by two players who are perhaps the two best T20 cricketers in the country right now. Adding fuel to the fire were people close to the outgoing captain indicating that he was not involved in the decision-making.
Such lack of transparency is outdated even in a closed-room corporate environment. In a team sport where recruiting and nurturing resources under a fixed budget is a challenge and making those resources work seamlessly together a necessity, this heavy-handedness proved to be a recipe for chaos.
The end result was a team visibly incohesive and a captain burdened by the task to win back naysayers with results and earn the respect of teammates through performance while hiding his emotions under a smile. Hardik ended up achieving only one of the three.
Coming from the owner who has ensured the succession planning of his business empire with grace and in a team known for going out of their way to value their player, this was not a good look for ‘One Family’.
With ridiculous success early in a league still in its infancy, Mumbai’s legacy has only taken a minor blip in the larger scheme of things. While they can refer to their earlier philosophies on auction spending and team combination, managing leadership aspirations within the team will be the biggest challenge moving forward.
The chemistry between SKY, Hardik and Bumrah will ultimately decide if Mumbai can be invincible again anytime soon.
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