Mumbai: Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene will review the performance of the batsmen after another poor performance of his team in IPL 2022. However, the ‘review’ that comes after eight losses in eight matches may not be enough for the five-time champions. The team is hoping to be eliminated in the tournament without opening an account in the points table.
KL Rahul, leading Lucknow, played an unbeaten 103 off 62 balls. Jayawardene said, “I need to review the performance of the batsmen. The team has performed very well in the past, due to which they have been the champions of IPL five times.”
However, the Sri Lankan greats were impressed with their bowlers’ performance as LSG were restricted to 168 by the bowlers despite captain KL Rahul’s unbeaten century.
Jayawardene said, “We bowled very well. KL played a special innings, he knew he had to score a long score for the team, which he did. Despite that the team bowlers restricted LSG to 168.”
He added, “We also need to do some improvement in the bowling. Although we did not allow the batsmen to score more runs, they also failed to take more wickets.”
The Sri Lankan coach also indicated that he is disappointed with his performance in the IPL mega auction despite giving the team’s costliest player Ishan Kishan full freedom to play his match.
After scoring two half-centuries in the first two matches, Kishan’s form was not good. “We have given him the freedom to play his natural match. I haven’t spoken to him yet after the loss to LSG, but I will talk to him about it soon,” Jayawardene said.
Mumbai will look to make up for their loss against Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium on April 30.
first published:April 25, 2022, 4:50 p.m.
