Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Tom Moody: Mumbai Indians will be nowhere near the finals | Tom Moody says there are too many gaps in MI team
Former Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Tom Moody believes that there are far too many holes in the Mumbai Indians (MI) squad for them to make it to the finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year. Moody criticised the five-time IPL champions’ auction strategy as he explained that the balance of their overseas contingent is too lopsided at the moment.
MI fought their way to 171 courtesy a terrific knock of 84 runs from Tilak Varma after their top-order completely crumbled. However, the bowling unit showed no bite as RCB’s opening duo of Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis took them to the cleaners, stitching a 148 run partnership in merely 15 overs. Mumbai are already missing their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in this campaign and star recruit Jofra Archer did not appear to be in the best of rhythm on Sunday.
Tom Moody – too many holes in the MI squad
“I am concerned (for MI) because I sort of called it before the start of the IPL that I didn’t think they’d be anywhere near the finals. I just feel there are too many holes amongst their team and I don’t think they’ve got a balance in their squad either. They don’t have the domestic bowling depth and the international bowling depth,” Moody said in the ESPNcricinfo T20 time out show in the aftermath of Mumbai’s loss against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
Mumbai will return back to their home turf to square off against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 8 but Moody is not too optimistic of their fortunes in the ongoing season.
“They don’t have balance with their overseas players either. They’ve got a lot of power-hitters and young power-hitters in Brevis, Stubbs and David. Three of them are taking up the eight slots that you’re given. That doesn’t make sense to me. You can see tonight just with RCB how important experience is. Where is the experience in that squad?” the former Australian pacer mentioned.
In addition to the lack of quality pacers, Mumbai are missing top spin bowling options in their ranks as well. They did not replace Rahul Chahar appropriately in the mega auction prior to IPL 2022 and have acquired Piyush Chawla for this year.
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On The CricBlog Podcast, we debate whether Mumbai indians will make the IPL 2023 playoffs. Watch here or below!