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Xtra Time Web Desk : Five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians find themselves languishing at the bottom of the points table at half way stage in the ongoing Indian Premier League season (IPL 2022). Rohit Sharma led team are yet to win a single match this season. On Sunday night Mumbai Indians lost to Lucknow Super Giants by 16 runs at Wankhede stadium, making it eight consecutive losses. In this article we try to find out the five main reasons why the most successful franchise has fared so badly this season:

Poor form of Ishan Kishan: The talented wicket keeper batter from Jharkhand hasn’t been in the best of form in the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. Ishan, who started the IPL 2022 season with an unbeaten 81-run knock against the Delhi Capitals (DC), saw his form dip suddenly. In MI’s next seven matches, Kishan has scored a mere 72 runs at an average of 10.67 with a top score of 26 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In the game against Lucknow Super Giants at Wankhede on Sunday, the 23-year-old Kishan scored a painful 8 runs off 20 balls.

Rohit Sharma not converting starts: The Mumbai Indians skipper hasn’t been in the best of form with the bat and his inability to convert starts has been costing heavily for Mumbai Indians, which has in turn put a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of young players in the middle order. With his highest score being 41 in the tournament opener against Delhi Capitals, Rohit has not failed to give the team a rollicking start. In the 8 matches so far, MI captain has scored only 153 runs at an average of only 19.13.

Kieron Pollard’s failure to finish games: Kieron Pollard is time and again proving this season that he has passed his prime. Scoring 115 runs so far this season with an average of only 16.43, the burly Trinidadian all-rounder has been just a shadow of his past self and has failed to finish games for Mumbai Indians. In Sunday night’s game against LSG, Mumbai required 72 runs from 6 overs with Pollard on crease. But he failed to take Mumbai home, getting out after scoring only 19 runs from 20 balls.

Poor auction strategy: The five-time IPL champions had been criticised earlier for their unexpected poor show at the IPL mega auctions held in February. The franchise spent heavily on Ishan Kishan and Jofra Archer, thus failing to re-buy the likes Quinton De Kock and Trent Boult who have done well for MI in the past seasons. The team lacked quality spinners this season, having released the likes of Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar and Jayant Yadav. Murugan Ashwin never looked like replacing his predecessors.

Over dependence on Jasprit Bumrah: Another area where Mumbai Indians looked to have fared miserably at the auction table, is not finding a good support for Jasprit Bumrah. The likes of Daniel Sams, Riley Meredith and Basil Thampi failed to provide the support to Bumrah. In previous seasons Mumbai had back-ups like Trent Boult, Nathan Coulter Nile and Marco Jansen.