The curious case of Mumbai Indians' overseas combination

On a balmy evening in Mumbai, Trent Boult made early incisions in Mumbai Indians' batting lineup as he so often does to opposition top orders. Dewald Brevis walked in at 1/2 as MI activated their Impact Sub option as early as the end of the first over of their innings - the earliest any team has done it since the inception of the rule last year. This was MI fielding their classic 2-2 overseas combination from their heydays of 2013-20: a top order batter (Dewald Brevis), a finisher (Tim David), a left-arm seamer (Luke Wood/Kwena Maphaka) and another seamer (Gerald Coetzee). Suryakumar Yadav's absence at the start of the season meant MI needed to supplement their batting lineup and therefore the 2-2 overseas combination made sense.

On paper, the Impact Player should widen the depth across both batting and bowling disciplines, but it has not gone that way in practice. The expansion to ten teams from eight has meant 80 domestic players are required to spread across ten franchises as compared to 56 among the original eight. The domestic bowling talent pool being shallower compared to the batting counterparts has meant bowling quality has dipped drastically. This coupled with the extra cushion offered by Impact Player has resulted in scoring rates soar since the start of IPL 2023.

With this scenario in the background, MI boasted of a top order populated by the cream of India's national T20 team: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya. This has provided them with the rare luxury to play three overseas bowlers in their starting XI which few other sides could afford to do. It seemed MI would go that way at the start of the season given their overseas composition spread across the extended squad: they have had just two specialist overseas batters which was the fewest among the ten teams. MI were the worst bowling side of the competition last season and it seemed they cracked a solution to address the problem.

However, things took a different turn once Suryakumar came into the XII in their fourth game. MI opted for a different overseas combination, dropping Brevis and Maphaka and bringing in two all-rounders in the form of Romario Shepherd, a hard hitting lower order batter with a propensity to leak runs with the ball, and Mohammad Nabi, a spin basher on his day, and a useful matchup off spinner. This change in combination meant MI had someone with Coetzee's ball striking ability coming out to bat at #9 - the extra batter's presence should not only lengthen the batting but also free up top order batters to bat more freely - and having as many as seven frontline bowling options.

It has not exactly translated as MI thought it would, though they have had the rub of the green with the results having won three of their last four games. Between them, Shepherd and Nabi have faced 22 balls across four games they've featured together in and bar the former's onslaught of Anrich Nortje in a 10-ball cameo of 32 runs, the pair has done precious little with the bat. Despite the batting depth, MI failed to chase down 206 against a CSK attack without Deepak Chahar and Mahesh Theekshana and were two hits way from suffering the same fate in Mullanpur before PBKS ran out of ammunition.

Shepherd - Nabi in IPL 2024

With the ball though, it has been a slightly different story with the duo averaging four overs per game across the four matches they've featured together in. But it has come at a cost. 16 overs from Shepherd and Nabi have cost MI 172 runs - a rate of 10.75 per over with a solitary wicket to show for. The reason for skipper Hardik Pandya deploying four overs of them on average has been to cover up another massive chink in their armor: the spin attack. MI are at the bottom of the charts for spinners at the halfway mark of the season and their premier leg spinner has not completed their quota of four overs in any games bar one (Shreyas Gopal against RCB).

The expansion to ten teams has diluted the strength of bowling attacks, especially spin attacks in the last three editions. MI entered the mega auction 2022 with almost 47% of their purse spent on four retentions of which Jasprit Bumrah was the only bowler. They spent another INR 23.25 crores towards availing the services of Ishan Kishan and an injury prone Jofra Archer, who eventually played five matches for MI across two seasons. With nearly 75% of their purse spent on six players, it would ultimately leave one of their bases exposed, which turned out to be the spin department. MI ended up at the bottom of the pile in IPL 2022 and just about had their neck above the water last season thanks to Piyush Chawla. This year, they have been once again the poorest among all spin attacks.

Spin attacks in IPL 2024

MI spinners in IPL 2024

MI were among the worst attacks in IPL 2023 and despite Jasprit Bumrah's return and the kind of season he is in the middle of, MI's fortunes as bowling unit have more or less remained there and thereabouts due to the lack of support for Bumrah. The five-time champs would be better served having another specialist seamer Nuwan Thushara in their XI in place of one of their all-rounders, who in turn can be picked depending on conditions and opposition matchups. Thushara, of the same mold as Lasith Malinga and Matheesha Pathirana with a slingy round arm action, has previously represented the MI franchise in SA20 earlier in the year and was among the few that extracted most sideways movement with the new ball in the competition.

Thushara's inclusion in the starting XI would mean MI tweaking the balance of their XII a touch. They will still have seven frontline bowling options to pick from and should they prefer to balance the side weighing towards additional batting depth with skipper Hardik Pandya as the sixth bowler they can do so by bringing in Nehal Wadhera, who impressed in maiden season for MI last season and followed it up with a good SMAT with Punjab, in place of either Akash Madhwal (whose is going at 11.28 per over) or the wrist spinner.

Nuwan Thushara in franchise T20 leagues & Internationals

Thushara has played 87 T20s across his eight year-old career. This includes a couple of T20 Internationals in Australia and the recently concluded SA20 and the IPL will be a big jump in standards he is used to. Thushara's inclusion might not prove to be a magic wand that miraculously heals MI of all their miseries, but it would at least allow them to deploy their bowlers in the most optimal way possible. Coetzee, a hard lengths enforcer in the middle and death overs, has often been tasked with the job of taking the new ball which he has sprayed around often. On helpful conditions in Mullanpur in their previous game, MI frontloaded Bumrah's overs and with his spell concluding by the end of 17th over meant skipper Hardik had to scramble for lesser options to cover the backend.

The inclusion of Impact Player and its effect in Indian cricket has garnered flak from the national team captain as well as some experts. While it has definitely helped some of the sides to cover inefficiencies in their batting side, it has not quite had the same effect in the bowling side of things as evidenced at Mumbai Indians. They sit at a precarious 3-4 win-loss record at the halfway stage of the tournament and how they address the gaping holes in their bowling attack as they march forward will be an interesting watch.