Mumbai Indians (MI) are enduring a dismal IPL 2022 campaign. The Rohit Sharma-led side has lost their first five matches and it seems tough for them to get back into the play-offs reckoning as they would need to win at least eight of the remaining nine games.

Amid the poor show, Delhi Capitals’ (DC) assistant coach Shane Watson criticized MI’s strategy at the mega-auction earlier this year.

In a bold gamble at the IPL 2022 mega-auction, MI think-tank had spent                INR 8 crore on English pacer Jofra Archer despite his unavailability for the season, while they bought back wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan for a whopping INR 15.5 crore.

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“It hasn’t surprised me that MI are at the bottom of the table because they had a shocking auction. Spending so much money on Ishan Kishan… He is a very talented and skilful player, but he’s not worth blowing nearly your whole salary on. And then, going for Jofra Archer, not knowing whether he is going to come back in. He hasn’t played cricket for quite a while. They have got quite a few holes in the team," Watson said while speaking on 'The Grade Cricketer'.

Besides MI, four-time champions CSK are having a tough time in the IPL 15 season, losing four of their five games so far.

Watson weighed in on CSK’s struggle, saying it is due to their pace department which has been hampered after Deepak Chahar has been ruled out of the competition.

“The biggest issue with CSK, now that I have seen their five games, is that they have got a hole, especially with their fast bowling. In the previous years, they had Shardul Thakur. Deepak Chahar is injured. They paid a lot for him at the auction, but he is (likely to be) unavailable for a lot of the tournament, which is a big hole. They don’t have a quality overseas quick like Josh Hazlewood. Earlier, they always had a world-class overseas quick bowler. That’s why they are struggling," Watson remarked.