Backing an under-performing player is an ideal trait for a captain and the team management as it shows that they have immense confidence in the player’s abilities regardless of him going through a lean patch. This confidence and backing can become the pillar for the resurgence of that particular player but, at the same time, it can be a double-edged sword and can especially hurt a team's chances in a cut-throat competition like the IPL.
Four games into this season of the IPL and Mumbai Indians (MI) have backed their vintage recruit Yuvraj Singh vigorously, but are they justified in ignoring the talent of Ishan Kishan for him? Is this selection really doing them any good? Well, let’s find out.
Yuvraj was picked up by the MI camp for his base price of INR 1 crore in the auction for the 2019 season after his previous franchise, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) released him post a disastrous IPL 2018 season. Last year, Yuvraj batted in just 6 innings for KXIP and managed a meagre 65 runs at an average of just 10.83 runs per inning. What was even more worrying was the fact that he scored those runs at a painstakingly slow strike-rate of 89.04. In short, he looked just a pale shadow of the hero who won India the World Cup in 2011 and looked like he was past his hay days.
Many were baffled by the MI camp’s decision to go with Yuvraj but they had their own reasons for the move. MI, last season, lost at least five games in the last over which could have gone either way. A big reason for those losses was believed to be the inexperience that their seemingly raw side carried with itself, last season. Keiron Pollard’s awful form didn’t help the case either.
So, they opted for the inclusion of Yuvraj this year and gave him Ishan Kishan’s place in the XI to provide some stability to the middle-order.
Yuvraj’s Slow Season So Far
Yuvraj started off well in MI’s season opener when he compiled a confidence-boosting 53-run inning off just 35 balls. His three sixes and five boundaries contained some vintage Yuvraj pick-up shots and flamboyant drives through the off-side to give an indication that this might be the beginning of a resurgence for the legend.
For once, MI’s decision looked right but then fate took a worrisome turn for the southpaw.
In the three subsequent innings, Yuvraj has so far managed scores of 23 (12 balls), 18 (22 balls) and 4 (6 balls) in the respective clashes against Bangalore, Punjab, and Chennai. His batting, especially in the last two innings, has looked scratchy and even the fifty he scored in the first match came at the cost of him consuming too many balls upfront to get his eyes in. That compounded the scoreboard pressure upon the other batsmen who lost their wickets regularly in order to keep up with the high required run-rate.
With such batting, the very principle of middle-order solidarity gets defeated as there has been only one inning of note in Yuvraj’s four visits to the crease while his batting has resulted in mounting the scoreboard pressure in three out of those four innings.
Clearly, his batting approach is costing MI at least 15-20 runs per game. So, what can be the solution to this conundrum?
The solution lies in the flamboyant and attacking batting of Ishan Kishan, the MI’s wicket-keeping recruit from the last season.
Kishan, a Cricketer in Form
Kishan was MI’s fourth highest run-scorer last season with a tally of 275 runs from 12 innings, coming at an average of just under 23 but what stood out was his strike-rate of 149.45 which was the second-best for MI last season with only Ben Cutting scoring at a more rapid pace at 165.51. If these stats look quite old to you then please consider glancing through his batting stats in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019 – India’s domestic T20 tournament.
333 runs from just 8 innings coming at a strike-rate of 151.36 and add to that two scintillating hundreds and a fifty, that’s Ishan Kishan’s performance for Jharkhand in the T20 competition this season where he averaged a whopping 55.50. What was Yuvraj doing for Punjab in the same competition? 73 runs from 4 innings at a dismal average of 18.25 coming at a disappointing strike-rate of 112.30.
The numbers are shouting out for the young wicketkeeper’s inclusion in the playing XI because there will always not be a Jasprit Bumrah or a Hardik Pandya to cover up the lost ground for the team in the death overs.
The MI team management needs to make prudent choices in selection. Their relation-building reputation hurt them last season when Pollard was playing inspite of his awful form and it is going to hurt them this season too if they continue to ignore the numbers’ story. It’s about time they give the precedence to numbers over reputation. Ishan Kishan needs to be included in the playing XI for MI.
(The writer is an avid follower and passionate writer who can't get enough of cricket to satisfy his hunger for the game and is trying to make a mark in the field of cricket writing.)
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