An incomprehensible decision was taken by Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 30 April. He selected seam-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur as his impact player. But the surprising thing is that Thakur, who was an impressive player, neither bowled a single ball nor went out to bat.
The Impact Player rule allows all Indian Premier League teams to make tactical changes as per the situation. Shardul Thakur can do wonders with both bat and ball. Mumbai Indians did some good work with the bat, especially from their opener Ryan Rickelton, who scored a century in this match, but their bowlers did little to save the first innings score.
Shardul Thakur’s role as Impact Sub remains unclear
Shardul Thakur became a part of the combination against Sunrisers Hyderabad in place of Robin Minz. Minz is a batsman and Shardul Thakur is a fast bowling all-rounder. It is understandable that the inclusion of Shardul in the line-up in place of a regular batsman strengthened the team’s bowling.
To everyone’s surprise, Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya did not ask the all-rounder to bowl a single over. As an influential player, Shardul Thakur did only fielding work. This was a big news for Indian cricket fans. Why didn’t Pandya use Shardul when most of his bowlers were struggling against Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen? This remains a mystery.
SRH batsmen played havoc with Mumbai Indians bowlers
Batting first, Ryan Rickelton’s unbeaten 123-run knock helped Mumbai score 243 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. On the batting-friendly deck of Wankhede Stadium, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma started the SRH innings with an aggressive approach. Sharma (45), Head (76), Heinrich Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls), and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10 balls) took SRH home safely, finishing the match in just 18.4 overs.
Bowling stats of Mumbai Indians vs SRH at Wankhede Stadium on April 29:
Trent Boult – 4.0 overs, 0 maidens, 41 runs, 1 wicket (economy: 10.25)
Jasprit Bumrah – 4.0 overs, 0 maidens, 54 runs, 0 wickets (economy: 13.50)
Will Jacks – 1.0 overs, 0 maidens, 19 runs, 0 wickets (Economy: 19.00)
Allah Ghazanfar – 4.0 overs, 0 maidens, 51 runs, 2 wickets (economy: 12.75)
Ashwani Kumar – 2.0 overs, 0 maidens, 41 runs, 0 wickets (economy: 20.50)
Hardik Pandya (Captain) – 3.4 overs, 0 maidens, 39 runs, 1 wicket (Economy: 10.64)
Pandya said that he did not have enough options in bowling
After the match, the MI captain said that they lacked options in the bowling department. However, he did not blame any bowler for the defeat.
“I think we don’t have much options this season, we really need to look at what difference we can make. I won’t put our bowlers under pressure. I think as an overall unit, we haven’t been able to deliver what Mumbai Indians really stands for. We really need to look at what things we need to work on and that’s okay,” Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya said after the match.
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