Star-studded teams step into fray

Match facts

Thursday, April 4, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Lasith Malinga will miss the opening game for Mumbai Indians

 

Big Picture

How loyalties and allegiances change in the IPL. Anil Kumble‘s association with Royal Challengers Bangalore was long and high-profile, as a player, captain, and mentor. He is known to have played a critical role in team strategy, selections, auction picks, all for a team representing his hometown. He is in the opposing camp now, hired by Mumbai Indians as their team mentor, and will have to plot against a side he helped strengthen over five seasons on his home ground.

An immediate problem to discuss for Kumble’s team is the absence of Lasith Malinga from the opening game due to injury. A prized asset of the Mumbai side, Malinga is still recovering from a sore back he suffered during the home series against Bangladesh. His replacement apart, Mumbai can compensate for that loss with runs from a power-packed batting line-up, though it’ll be interesting to see if Sachin Tendulkar and his opening partner [there were as many as eight last season] are able to keep their combination for a good part of the season.

The Royal Challengers are among the most passionately followed teams in the IPL and, for a tournament centred on the concept of city loyalties, Bangalore has lapped up its team like no other. But the title has proved elusive, despite twice having made the final. Led by Virat Kohli this season, Royal Challengers have as many as 15 seamers in their squad – though one of them, Zaheer Khan, is ruled out of the opening match with a side strain. It could be said that Kumble’s inputs may have made their job easier had he not switched over, but how they manage their staff is one of several potential challenges this season could throw up.

 

 

Players to watch

Is Glenn Maxwell worth a million dollars? He was the only million-dollar buy at the 2013 auction, then had a lacklustre Test series in India, and didn’t have a great World Twenty20 before he was bought. His purchase is a gamble, and it remains to be seen to what extent his all-round skills are able to prove, or undermine, the team’s decision.

From doing the moonwalk to gangnam style, classy celebrations to banter with opposition players, Chris Gayle has loosened up much since we first saw him in 1999 when he took on India in Toronto. His demeanour on the field aside, he has been a pivotal player for Royal Challengers with his explosive batting at the top, and has endeared himself to his fans, not just by treating them to airshows at the Chinnaswamy Stadium but winning their admiration despite giving them a bloody nose, literally, and landing them in hospital.

 

 

2012 head-to-head

Gayle was the architect of a big win over Mumbai last season at the Wankhede Stadium, as Royal Challengers eased home by nine wickets. Mumbai then won a close game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium less than a week later, with Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard guiding them to victory in a tight chase.

 

      Stats and trivia

• Malinga is among the few bowlers to have kept Gayle quiet in the IPL. R Ashwin is another. Malinga has bowled 39 balls to Gayle in the IPL, conceding 36 runs that included five fours. Against Ashwin, Gayle has scored at a run a ball in the IPL – 33 off 33.
• At the very least, Gayle could become the second-highest run-getter in all T20 cricket. He is now on 4804 runs, just 17 behind David Hussey. Brad Hodge leads the list with 5274.

 

 

Quotes

“We do have a lot of options to pick from, with as many as 11 specialist pacers and four seaming all-rounders. Of course there are a few players who are coming off injuries, like Daniel Vettori (ankle injury).”
Venkatesh Prasad, the Royal Challengers bowling coach

“We are all friends for the next few months. That’s one thing I have made very clear to the guys already. We are one. The Mumbai Indians are one.”
Ricky Ponting, the new Mumbai Indians captain, says the ‘Sydneygate’ incident is a thing of the past.

 

Big spenders still searching for returns

 

Big Picture

	Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting are mentor and captain of Mumbai Indians for the season

 

 

If willingness to put millions behind wish was a guarantee of success, Mumbai Indians should have been IPL winners multiple times by now. Year after year, auction after auction, they have poured in the big bucks and signed the biggest names, but the prize has always eluded them. The IPL is only five seasons old, and there are more franchises that haven’t won it than those that have, but the tag of free-spending underachievers has belonged to Mumbai. Three successive seasons of making the IPL knockouts and a Champions League title haven’t quite been able to shake off that label. That’s the price you pay for assembling so many overseas and Indian stars.

This season is no different. John Wright and Anil Kumble are the latest additions to the Mumbai management. Ricky Ponting is the newest captain. These are not merely big names. These are institutions, men whose achievements will resonate for generations to come. They have probably the biggest crowd-puller the game has ever seen, Sachin Tendulkar, whose presence guarantees sellouts at Wankhede Stadium weeks before the season begins. There is Kieron Pollard, to whom Twenty20 comes as naturally as cricket did to Garry Sobers.

Why is such a collection of superstars still without an IPL title? It is as much a reflection on the fickleness of the format as on Mumbai’s inability to handle the pressure in knockout clashes. It is difficult to imagine a similar line-up going without success for so long in Tests or ODIs, although South Africa will readily dispute that when it comes to world tournaments.

For what it’s worth, the South African flavour of the squad last season has given way to one that is overwhelmingly Australian, with four of the five buys in the 2013 auction coming from Ponting’s country, including the million-dollar Glenn Maxwell. The Indian contingent, especially the first-choice players, is perhaps the strongest in the IPL.

When you have so much to play with, you are prone to tinker too much too soon if the results don’t come – Mumbai tried 24 players, the most, last season and as many as eight opening combinations. Stability is one thing Ponting will have to strive for. The results could follow. Or then again, the knockouts could prove to be the stumbling point. Regardless, the Wankhede stands will be packed and shrieking.

 

Key Players

Mumbai were the only bidders for Ricky Ponting in the auction. They bought him at base price and made him captain. This was probably the only way for Ponting to return to the IPL. Most other franchises have settled leadership. Ponting is making the most of what is left of his playing days after the end of a great international career in December. After the IPL, he will play in England and the West Indies. No love is lost between the former Australia captain and Indian fans, and now he is leading a franchise which has Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Kumble.

Ponting’s record suggests he isn’t a bad Twenty20 batsman at all. He has been in fine nick; more than 900 runs in the Sheffield Shield and a decent run in the Big Bash. He was one of the longest-serving captains in international cricket, and has an overflowing trophy cabinet to back his credentials. On the face of it, it seems to be a bargain buy for a splurging franchise that has had to do with reluctant and hot-headed captains in the past.

Pollard was Mumbai’s second highest wicket-taker last season, behind Lasith Malinga. Harbhajan had six wickets from 17 matches; RP Singh 10 from 11 at nearly eight runs an over. Barring Munaf Patel to an extent, there was little strike support for Malinga from the other frontline bowlers. Malinga has only four overs in a T20 game, and the others will have to do better than their 2012 showing.

Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, R Sathish, Aiden Blizzard, T Suman, Richard Levi, Herschelle Gibbs, Dwayne Smith … that is not some random wishlist for a Mumbai Indians XI, but the list of opening partners for Sachin Tendulkar over the previous two seasons. Only the pairing with Smith had some success. Phillip Hughes is the newest contender to open with Tendulkar, whose T20 strike-rate has also suffered along with his overall decline. Unless Tendulkar can script yet another revival in his batting, the onus will be on his partner to give firepower at the top. Who will it be, or rather, how many more combinations will we see?

 

Big players in

Undoubtedly Ponting, although paying a million dollars for Maxwell also makes him a big signing. However, with Ponting, Pollard and Malinga likely to take three of the four overseas players’ slots, it is to be seen how many games Maxwell gets. Many have pointed to his lacklustre debut Test series in India to scoff at the price Mumbai paid for him, but if reverse logic was to be applied, Pollard should have been hailed as a potential Test great by now.

 

Big players out

Thisara Perera, the hard-hitting Sri Lanka allrounder, was released by the franchise and bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for $675,000 in the 2013 auction.

 

Under the radar

First-class batting and bowling averages of 42.03 and 25.47 suggest that Rishi Dhawan, the 23-year old from Himachal Pradesh, has the makings of a genuine allrounder. Another allrounder, Madhya Pradesh’s Jalaj Saxena has been around for a while, and his batting has prospered in recent times, although the same cannot be said about his offbreaks.

 

Availability

If, and that is a big if, Franklin is picked in New Zealand’s Test squad to tour England, he could end up missing a substantial chunk of the tournament in May.