Former Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Mumbai Indians (MI) are officially out of the tournament after their loss on Sunday. Suryakumar Yadav saw his side lose to defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Raipur by two wickets to signal the end to their little hopes of making it to the playoffs.
Former MI star spinner Harbhajan Singh has defended pacer jasprit bumrahwith the latter suffering a poor season. On Sunday, the pacer went wicketless once more but gave away just 20 runs from his four overs. This season, Bumrah has managed to pick just three wickets from 11 games to raise massive concerns about his form.
Singh also called out the franchise for being over-reliant on the pacer and said the other bowlers should have stood up and been counted. Harbhajan, during his chat on JioStar, said, “He (Bumrah) is the kind of bowler who can change a game on his own. But over-reliance on him isn’t right. Players like Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, and Hardik Pandya are also low on confidence.”
Former Indian legend wants players to regain lost confidence
The 45-year-old also went on to add, “The team faces a massive challenge on how to bring these struggling players back to their best. Another concern Mumbai has is their lack of good spinners. There were some good spin bowlers in the past, but that is not the case anymore.”
Allah Ghazanfar has been Mumbai’s best bowler so far this season with 12 wickets. The 20-year-old didn’t have a great time in the park on Sunday as he managed to pick just one wicket for 33 runs from his three overs. Mitchell Santner’s injury saw Keshav Maharaj being drafted as the replacement, but the South African star hasn’t been given a game yet.
Bhajji shares his sorrow over the form slump faced by former IPL winners
The former Indian star had led the Men in Blue and Gold for a couple of seasons and also won them the Champions League title in 2011. During his decade-long stint with the Ambani-owned side, Singh won three IPL titles and two Champions League trophies and was a key member of the side before his release at the end of the 2017 season.
After seeing his former side miss out on yet another playoff, the spin legend said, “I have never seen them (MI) show such body language. I was part of this team for a decade, even when we lost a few games in a row, our body language was never like this. We always had the will to fight and stage a comeback.”
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