Another Indian Premier League season started on a losing note for five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians, as they returned with an eight-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL 2023 campaign opener on Sunday. The Rohit Sharma-led franchise looked average in both departments of the game, as Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 82 off 49 sailed RCB to the target of 172 runs with 22 balls remaining. Rohit Sharma’s captaincy became a heated topic of discussion for the cricketing world and received remarks from several cricketing greats.
Meanwhile, speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Australian cricket legend Tom Moody pointed out that the MI playing XI consisted of several holes. Moody expressed that ‘too many holes’ in the MI squad might not lead the champion team anywhere near the IPL finals. “I just feel there are too many holes amongst their team and I don’t think they’ve got a balance in their squad either. They don’t have the domestic bowling depth and the international bowling depth,” added the former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach.
“I’m concerned (for MI) because I sort of called it before the start of the IPL that I didn’t think they’d be anywhere near the finals. I just feel there are too many holes amongst their team and I don’t think they’ve got a balance in their squad either. They don’t have the domestic bowling depth and the international bowling depth,” Moody said.
MI IPL 2023 squad: What went wrong for Mumbai Indians in their tournament opener?
Mumbai Indians’ IPL 2023 squad features several overseas stars like Cameron Green, Tim David, Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs, and Dewald Drevis among others. However, the former SRH coach revealed he feels maximum of the international stars in MI are relatively young and in-experiences. This comes after a weak MI squad that lacked experienced and depth in IPL 2022, finished last in the tournament for the first time.
“They don’t have balance with their overseas players either. They’ve got a lot of power-hitters and young power-hitters in Brevis, Stubbs and David. Three of them are taking up the eight slots that you’re given. That doesn’t make sense to me. You can see tonight just with RCB how important experience is. Where is the experience in that squad?” Moody further explained.
MI IPL 2023 squad: MI’s full squad for Indian Premier League 2023
Mumbai Indians IPL 2023 squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jofra Archer, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal, Sandeep Warrier
