MUMBAI INDIANS’ HEAD COACH Mark Boucher has acknowledged the team’s poor showing this season and talked about how important it is to be patient and to think things through carefully before making any changes. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defeated Mumbai in their final match by 18 runs, taking them to the last place of the IPL standings.
Boucher talked about Hardik Pandya’s captainship and batting woes highlighting his all-rounder potential as well. There is no doubt that Pandya would learn from this situation and grow as a leader. “Even Hardik would’ve been disappointed with his performance. From a captain’s perspective, he had some excellent games,” Boucher said in a post-match press conference.
“There is also a lot of stuff surrounding him clouding his thoughts sometimes, which at times makes it difficult for him as a leader. He had a lot of support within our dressing room, guys trying to help him out but it’s just tough going through as a player. It is what it is; that will be part of his leadership growth most definitely. It won’t always be like this now though, some things will pass and make him stronger,” he added.
However, Boucher could not reveal whether Pandya will continue leading or who’ll coach MI next season but stressed on decisions being made soberly. As far as my stuff goes I’m not too sure where I’m going to be honest with you? Like I said currently it’s early days there are many emotions flying around probably all over us you know we’re not only one person here we are in high-performance zone so when you don’t perform you need to get looked at.” He added.
“Thus, the only thing I can do as coach is give my best which I have done exactly that…I have got no regrets about what I did here….did I do everything right? We will sit down with him and all other players then evaluate that as we always do,” he said.
Boucher agreed with the concerns raised about MI’s poor performance for the past three years stating that it was necessary to conduct a deep review of five time IPL champions.
“Yes, it is disappointing. We’ve identified our bowlers as one of the areas where we wanted to strengthen after our auction and I thought we did that. Losing two players at the start of the season wasn’t ideal for us but still they were alright. So yeah, on paper, I thought we’d do much better than we’ve done. We just haven’t managed to combine our batting and bowling in one single match. One has always let the other down which is unfortunate,” Boucher said.
“This is a matter of concern and definitely something that needs attention within this franchise. I’m sure it will happen. Mumbai Indians is such a successful franchise for a reason because when you see trends like that, then you sit down, and you evaluate every season. You do a review, and if there are trends that are happening each year, then you do have to sit down make some changes and make some big calls which I know for a fact that we’re okay with doing,” opined MI coach.
Hardik had both bat and ball performances in his season that were disappointing as he could only manage to score 216 runs with his highest being 46, an average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.05 in just fourteen matches. However, his bowling economy rate was recorded at 10.75 while the average stood at 35.18 having taken just eleven wickets.
