IPL 2022: Mahela Jayawardene weighed in on Mumbai Indians’ loss to LSG.© BCCI/IPL
Left-handed batter Ishan Kishan was picked up by Mumbai Indians in the IPL mega auction for a whopping Rs 15.25 crore and the franchise expected him to be at his best and help the Rohit Sharma-led side get off to a good start. However, after scoring 81 in the first game this season, Kishan has failed to get going and is currently experiencing a slump in form. In eight games so far, he has scored 199 runs at an average of 28.43. After Mumbai Indians’ eighth defeat in a row this season, head coach Mahela Jayawardene said Kishan has indeed struggled in the last few games and his performance is not what the team “views him at the top”.
“Obviously you’ve seen on the pitch that he struggled a bit in the last four games after a good start in the first few games. I haven’t had a conversation with him after this game to find out what was going through his mind about how we’re going to play. We wanted to approach it. We gave him the freedom to play his natural game, which he probably didn’t perform well in the last few games,” Jayawardene said during a virtual press conference after the game.
“We’ve had conversations with him, even today when Rohit was hitting well, he was struggling. That’s a conversation I need to have with him after this game. But yeah, definitely not what we expect from him at the top,” he added.
In the match against Lucknow Super Giants, Kishan scored 8 runs off 20 balls and was unable to start. He couldn’t turn the corner and was eventually fired by Ravi Bishnoi in the eighth left of the innings.
Lucknow Super Giants defeated Mumbai Indians by 36 runs on Sunday to move to fourth in the IPL points table.
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Batting first, LSG posted 168/6 in 20 overs thanks to skipper KL Rahul’s unbeaten knock of 103 runs. With these innings, Rahul became the first player to score three 100’s against one particular opponent in all T20 cricket.
Krunal Pandya then returned with three wickets while LSG limited Mumbai to 132/8, taking a 36-run victory.
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