Can Mumbai Indians Qualify for IPL Playoffs After Six Back-to-Back defeats?

Mumbai Indians, the most successful franchise, kicked off their Indian Premier League 2022 campaign with six straight defeats. Their sixth defeat came against Lucknow Super Giants, after falling 18 runs short of the target. 

Other than MI, only Delhi Capitals (2013) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (2019) have a dubious distinction of being winless even after six games. Both of them finished at the bottom of the points table in their respective seasons. 

Mumbai, however, is known for grand comebacks. In 2014, they became the first team to win the league after starting off with five defeats in a row. It was Aditya Tare’s six that helped them chase down 190 set up by Rajasthan Royals in 14.4 overs to make it to the playoffs.

@mipaltan has always been a team of comebacks. Whether or not they get through to the playoffs this year, expect them to have a strong finish to the season?
Their core group of players and the support staff definitely have the quality to pull them back?#Mumbaiindians

— Lasith Malinga (@ninety9sl) April 16, 2022

But this time around there are too many issues bogging down the team. Mumbai surprised everyone in the auction room when they made a successful bid for the injured Jofra Archer, who isn’t even on the side. Mumbai is heavily reliant on unproven fast bowlers, and this hinders the efficacy of Jasprit Bumrah. 

Captain speaks.#OneFamily #DilKholKe #MumbaiIndians #MIvLSG @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/ko84Itgb3Z

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 16, 2022

Neither Basil Thampi nor Jaydev Unadkat has been incisive enough in the Powerplay, while Tymal Mills has leaked too many runs. On the batting front, their mega buy Ishan Kishan has struggled to bat freely, while Rohit Sharma has been unable to put up anything substantial.

How can Mumbai Indians qualify?

Theoretically, it is possible for Mumbai Indians to advance to the next round but they will have to win all remaining matches, and at this point, that looks impossible. Further, their run rates have plummeted to -1.048, and thus they will need a few massive victories as well.

“We lost 6 games now, we are trying to understand what our right combination is, but it all depends on the opposition that we play. When you lose games it is very easy to point out that changes are being made but we try and go with our best eleven,” said Rohit Sharma after MI lost to LSG. 

Even though the team is undergoing a transition, not many would have thought Mumbai succumbing to six defeats in as many games.