Tom Moody, a former Australian all-rounder, has criticized the Mumbai Indians (MI) for underutilizing pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah during their IPL match against Punjab Kings (PBKS). Moody believes that this allowed PBKS to rally from a precarious position and come within striking distance of MI’s total.
In the match, Bumrah was matchless, taking off the dangerous Shashank Singh, Rilee Rossouw, and opener Sam Curran to help MI win by nine runs. MI had given PBKS a 193 target.
However, Moody pointed out that Bumrah was removed from the attack just as PBKS appeared to be losing ground, which allowed the home team to rally.
“Again, Mumbai leaning on him so much to turn their fortunes around. He bowled two overs early on and had the Punjab Kings on their back. But, interestingly enough, he didn’t bowl another over until the 13th,” said Moody on Star Sports Cricket Live.
“He’s at the peak of his powers at the moment. And that’s my point of where I think the Mumbai Indians let the Punjab Kings back into this contest. (Gerald) Coetzee and Bumrah for mine, and I’ll be interested to hear what the other fast bowlers think on this show. Should (Bumrah) have bowled again to be able to put Punjab completely out onto the campus,” he added.
Former South African fast Dale Steyn agreed with Moody, saying that MI’s front-line pacers Bumrah and Coetzee needed assistance from other bowlers. He suggested that MI’s bowling department was suffering from an unmotivated Hardik Pandya.
“We want to see them (MI) close out games early by bringing Bumrah back or Coetzee. But then they have to depend on guys like Hardik to finish off, who hasn’t been bowling as well of late and some of the other bowlers travelling like (Romario) Shepherd, they may struggle in the back end.”
“Mumbai are in a situation now where they have to tactically figure things out, but they also need somebody to step up, their bowlers to step up and really help out Bumrah and Coetzee, because if they (MI) keep going the way they are, they might lose more points again.”
Moody also commented on Suryakumar Yadav, who recently recovered from an ankle injury and a hernia operation. He said that Yadav needed to participate for the whole league season in order to fully recover.
On Thursday, “Mr 360 degrees” amassed a 53-ball 78 to lead MI to 192. Moody said that the middle-order hitter needed to return to optimal health in order to help India’s chances of winning the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.
“It’s important that he slowly works back into full fitness, he needs to be playing for the whole 40 overs and that would be great. Not that he bowls or anything but for his own peace of mind and fitness for that the preparation for what is beyond the IPL. It was a great innings today (from him).
Steyn praised PBSK batter Ashutosh Sharma for the sweep shot he employed against Bumrah, something which has not been used against the India quick too often.
“I mean, IPL never ceases to disappoint us with close games and creating new heroes… Bumrah bowls a no-ball, and the next thing Ashutosh goes down and plays that sweep that goes for six.”
