Mumbai: Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene asserted that their opener, Ishan Kishan, has failed to execute his natural playstyle which has let down the team in crucial phases of the game.
“We have had conversations with him, even today when Rohit was batting well, he struggled. That is a conversation I have to have with him after this game. But, yeah, definitely not what we are looking for from him up at the top,” Jayawardene said at the virtual press conference after the game.
Mumbai spent a mammoth Rs 15.25 crore to acquire the services of Ishan Kishan. Kishan started off well in the IPL 2022 season, scoring 81 in MI’s first game of the season. Unfortunately, after having a good run in the first two matches of the tournament, Kishan’s performance has dropped drastically.
“Obviously on the field, you have seen that he struggled a bit in the last four games after having a good start in the first few. I have not had a conversation with him yet after this game to figure out what went through his mind on how we wanted to approach it.”
In the match against Lucknow Super Giants, kishan played a poor knock off 8 (19) during their run chase of 169 on Sunday and was not able to get going. He failed to rotate the strike and eventually was dismissed by Ravi Bishnoi in the eighth over of the innings.
“He has struggled a bit. We have given him the freedom to play his natural game which he probably has not executed well in the last few games,” Jayawardene added.
Mumbai have lost eight games in a row so far, extending the record for the worst start ever to
their campaigns in the history of the Indian Premier League if they kept losing all their match this way.
