Mumbai Indians loses three games in a row: Skipper Rohit has this to say

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma said his batters need to up their game following the 54-run thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Sunday. In fact, this is Mumbai’s third loss in a row this IPL season.

While MI pacer Jasprit Bumrah kept hitting the right line and length to torment RCB batters, snaring the wickets of Devdutt Padikkal, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers and restricting the rivals to a sub-180 total, the batters were woeful.

Openers Sharma (42) and South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock (24) managed decent scores but no other MI batsman could reach double digits. Mumbai Indians’ innings folded up for 111 runs in 18.1 overs.

“Thought it was a fantastic bowling effort from us. At one stage they [RCB] looked like they were scoring 180-plus. The batters let us down and that’s been something that’s been happening consistently. I have had a good chat with the batters and we have to make sure we carry on. I played a bad shot and got out; I felt that was the game-changing moment. They kept the pressure on us once a couple of wickets fell,” Sharma said post-match.

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Mumbai are seventh on the points table with eight points from 10 outings. They are on the threshold of an early exit from the IPL 2021.

“We need to bounce back from whatever situation we’re in. We’ve done that in the past. It’s just not happening this season. Ishan Kishan is a talented player. He had a terrific IPL last year. We want to back his natural game, which is why he came up the order above Surya [Suryakumar Yadav]. I don’t want to put too much pressure on the guy. He’s relatively young, making his way in international cricket,” Sharma said.

MI next play Punjab Kings at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on September 28.