Ricky Ponting has joined the Mumbai Indians as advisor. He was a part of the franchise during the last edition of IPL as well, but, as a player. He was, in fact, the captain of the side in the first few matches before he stepped down from his position due to bad form and Rohit Sharma took over.
The appointment of Ponting is a bit surprising because Mumbai already had plenty of great cricketers in the think tank in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Jonty Rhodes.
However, after Ponting’s arrival, some changes have been seen in the tactics of the Mumbai Indians. Now, they have started sending their main batsmen slightly higher in the order.
In the first couple of games, Mumbai had held the likes of Pollard and Anderson back and that cost them dearly as these two players didn’t get enough time to get set and then go berserk.
But, Ponting has come in and he has probably convinced the team management to reshuffle the batting order. As a result of that, in the last three games, Corey Anderson has batted at 3, Rohit Sharma has opened, while, Kieron Pollard has come in at 5.
However, despite this reshuffling, the defending champions haven’t managed to break their losing streak, but, they have certainly looked better than the first two matches.
In the last match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai would probably have got home and opened their account if Kieron Pollard had not got out at a crucial juncture.
Mumbai Indians’ next match is against the table toppers Kings XI Punjab on 3rd of May. That’s a day match and will be played at the Wankhede Stadium which is known as Mumbai’s fortress as they had won all their games there in the last season.