Mumbai Indians' Struggles and Sunrisers Hyderabad's Rise: A Cricketing Perspective

It has been very difficult to watch the Mumbai Indians matches this year. As someone who was lucky to play for a champion Mumbai Ranji trophy side, it hurts me to see the lack of coordination in this playing XI.There’s a lack of “connectedness”, which is the most important ingredient in team sports success. It seems like the captain is singing a different tune and there seem to be two or three different choirs all singing different melodies. Their team selection has been questionable – Rickelton in, then out, de Kock in, then out; Rickleton scores an amazing century, so bye-bye to de Kock. What is also hurting them is that Boult is not the bowler he used to be. Rohit Sharma is being severely missed, and runs have unfortunately dried up for SKY.If Rohit and SKY fire for the remainder of the IPL, then MI will be able to salvage some pride out of this IPL. They badly need to finish strongly. Also, Hardik Pandya needs to get his blinders on and rally his troops quickly. He needs to go back to playing simple cricket, without all the analytics of match ups and head-to-head historical data, etc.You have Bumrah, use him to take wickets. You yourself have a great outswinger, use it to take wickets. Speak to Boult, tell him this is probably his last hurrah, inspire him to get back to his best.Speak to your batting line-up and inspire them to refrain from trying to prove a point to people, and instead focus on being cogs in the wheel.Cummins peps up SRHWith two batters in the top three run scorers thus far, Sunrisers Hyderabad are looking like a rejuvenated team. Hardly surprising though, as they have their leader back. Pat Cummins is a leader of men in the truest sense. His own life has been chronicled by almost career-ending injuries, but he bounced back. This ability to weather severe storms in one’s life makes people very strong. But it also makes them extremely empathetic.I have been following Cummins’s captaincy since he got the coveted job for Australia. He has had a learning curve that has been masked to some extent by the sheer quality of teammates around him. He has had a few strategic missteps for sure, but he has grown from a captain to a leader. He always has the ball in hand when the going is tough for the team, or when a wicket needs to be prised out. His ball to Shreyas Iyer in the 2023 World Cup final was a graphic representation of accuracy, speed and supreme thought. Iyer’s wicket opened the game up and Australia won.Cummins’s kindness towards his players is for all to see, and it is such an endearing sight among all the bludgeoning of the T20 format. He has been a great signing by SRH, and along with Daniel Vettori, is building a very strong franchise. They have been steadily moving up the points table, and I think will make the playoffs.Cummins will be at his most dangerous in these knockout games, and I will not be surprised at all if they knock some top team out.Klassen too is looking in silken touch. He looks leaner, and clearly a lot of work has gone into this. He is timing the ball superbly and is looking extremely keen to be there when the deceive runs need to be scored.Sai and Shubhman, an unlikely pairLife can be strange for batsmen. Sometimes you are batting well but runs elude you. Sometimes you are not playing well but runs come in heaps. Sai Sudarshan is in the latter boat. He has never been the most fluent of left handers, he is a slight antithesis to all the graceful left-handedness of the Laras and Kamblis.Gill, on the other hand, is batting with two gears in reserve and one can see the captaincy speaking through this batting approach. He is a silent but fierce competitor and will want to be in the play-offs very badly. Let us not forget he is captain of India in two formats. He would be desperately disappointed if he is not being able to lead GT into the last four at least.Jatin Paranjape (@jats72) is a former Mumbai and India cricketer and an ex-national selector.