Mumbai Indians (MI) are enduring a dismal IPL 2022 campaign. The five-time champions have lost all their eight matches in the competition so far and they are now out of the playoffs race.
Amid the poor show, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar on Sunday (April 24) slammed MI opening batter Ishan Kishan’s performance. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 8 off 20 balls in Mumbai’s latest defeat against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Sunday (April 24).
During the 8th over of MI’s innings, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi ended Ishan’s misery at the crease with a bizarre dismissal as the southpaw chased a wider delivery only to get a thick inside edge that hit Quinton de Kock's boot, bounced off it and landed in the hands of Jason Holder at slip.
Instead of waiting for confirmation whether the catch was clean or not, Ishan Kishan was walking back to the pavilion, which led to Gavaskar criticising his attitude.
“He had a miserable time. He just walked off. Because he had a miserable time. So he just wanted to get out of his misery. Generally batters, when they have ripped the ball of the middle-edge of the bat, and caught and first slip, they would wait. But here's a man, who hit ball down, may be even hit the turf he was not interested, he was just walking until the umpire asked him to wait. So it was just the mental situation he was in,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after MI’s 36-run loss at the hands of LSG.
In a bold move at the IPL 2022 mega-auction, Mumbai Indians’ think-tank had spent a whopping INR 15.5 crore to retain the services of Ishan Kishan.
However, the left-hander has failed to live up to the price tag so far, amassing 199 runs from 8 games at a strike rate of 108.15.
According to Gavaskar, Ishan has not shown the right attitude against short deliveries and he will find it difficult to bat in Australia, where the T20 World Cup 2022 is scheduled to take place.
“Maybe he was rattled by the blow he got in the last match on his helmet and it is actually not a good sign because in places like Australia or South Africa there is extra bounce and with his propensity to go there and do nothing about it, he will just be a rabbit caught in the headlights. Every fast bowler is just going to bang it over there. Nobody will pitch it up because that's where he likes. Anything below the waist he will smack it, but above, he is struggling at the moment,” he said.
