IPL 2020: Analysing the spin attack of Mumbai Indians
Defending champions Mumbai Indians seemed to have formed a solid squad at the end of the IPL 2020 auction. But their spin bowling attack does not look convincing given the tournament is moved to UAE where slow pitches will be on offer.
MI has five spin bowling options in their current squad but none of them is an overseas player. They did have a chance to rope in a foreign spinner following Lasith Malinga’s opting out. But the think tank went ahead with Aussie quick James Pattinson.
Not fond of spinners
Mumbai Indians are probably the only team that hasn’t been inclined towards spin bowlers since the start of the league. In the first decade, they had Harbhajan Singh filling up the role of the spinner and seldom had a support act in Pragyan Ojha. Krunal Pandya’s entry in 2016 gave them a readymade spin option who can rush through his four overs giving away fewer runs. The likes of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were part of the MI squad but two of those four spinners never played an IPL match for them.
Change of strategy
The last few seasons have seen a change in MI’s strategy in the usage of spinners due to the necessity of wrist spinners. MI had been trailing leg-spinners since 2017 with Karn Sharma, Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar being the preferred ones. In the current squad, Krunal and Rahul are the only spin options who have played at least ten IPL matches for Mumbai. Jayant Yadav has played a total of 12 IPL matches for multiple teams and is the only right-arm off-spinner in their squad.
Anukul Roy is another young left-arm spinner in the MI line-up similar to Krunal, who can chip in with quick runs. The only spinner that Mumbai Indians bought in the IPL auction for the 2020 season was Prince Balwant Rai Singh. The leg-spinner from Punjab has not even made his professional debut. If a third spin option becomes a must on the UAE pitches, Jayant could find a place in the MI line-up alongside Krunal and Rahul.
(Stats as on September 5, 2020)
