‘There are decent cracks in their invincibility’ – Deep Dasgupta after MI’s seven-wicket loss to KKR

Former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta reckoned that Mumbai Indians should go back to the template they have been following over the years to gain momentum in the 2021 Indian Premier League. On Thursday, September 23, MI slumped to a crushing seven-wicket loss at the hands of the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

In the second leg of IPL 2021, MI have lost both their matches and have gone down to the sixth position in the points table. On September 19, Chennai Super Kings beat them by 20 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Dasgupta was clear cut in saying that the five-time champion shouldn’t change their approach due to the absence of a few players.

MI should go back to playing the way they do, says Deep Dasgupta

“I’m looking at their body language and suddenly there are decent cracks now occurring in their so-to-say ‘invincibility’. I’m still saying that they are a very good side. The kind of squad they have is suitable for these surfaces.

“They have a certain kind of a template that has been so successful and these players have followed the same for so many years because they have been part of this setup,” Dasgupta told ESPNcricinfo.

“Suddenly overnight, just because a few of them are not in form or one of them is not available, you can’t change that template. So, I think they should go back to playing the way they do. But they should be careful about the way they should go about things.

“They scored 45 in the middle-overs from seven to 14 and that’s not Mumbai Indians. That’s not how they play,” he added.

After being put in to bat first, MI got off to a handsome start as skipper Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock stitched together a 78-run stand for the opening wicket off 56 balls. The captain also notched in excess of 1000 runs against the Men in Gold and Purple.

But once Sunil Narine got rid of Rohit, MI lost their rhythm and crawled to 155 in 20 overs. The Knight Riders chased the target with 29 balls to spare courtesy of half-centuries from Venkatesh Iyer and Rahul Tripathi.