IPL 2022: Mumbai Indians looking for collective effort to get off the mark, says Jaydev Unadkat

Mumbai : Mumbai Indians left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat has called for a “collective effort” from the five-time champions to get their first win of IPL 2022 ahead of their match against defending champions Chennai Super Kings on Thursday.

The ongoing tournament has been far from ideal for Mumbai, who are at the bottom of the points table with six defeats in as many matches while Chennai have just one win in six games. The Rohit Sharma-led side need to win every single match, starting from the one against Chennai at the DY Patil Stadium, to avoid an early exit from IPL 2022.

“There has to be a collective effort and that is what we are looking for. At the moment, there’s no point of looking at the bigger picture to be honest. The stage that we are in, we are just looking to put some things right, the missing pieces right first and just to get off the mark. Once we do that, the other things follow,” said Unadkat in pre-match virtual press conference.

Unadkat, who has picked four wickets in the tournament, feels Mumbai have to think short-term instead of looking at the bigger picture. “So for now, rather than looking at the bigger picture and looking at ‘We have to win eight out of eight’ or something like that, it’s about winning that one game. How we’re going to do a couple of things differently maybe, from what we did in the last few games. We were close, but not over the line, so maybe just rectify those things first.”

Amongst the problem areas for Mumbai in bowling, the death overs phase has been a concern. In IPL 2022, Mumbai have the worst economy rate amongst all teams, at 13.30. Unadkat admitted that death overs bowling has been a problem area for Mumbai in IPL 2022 due to them not being able to click as a bowling unit.

“That (death bowling) has been a concern. Discussions have been about having the right plans for right players. It’s one thing to talk about in the meetings; the other thing is to execute the plans in pressure situations. From what I have faced/experienced in the past, it’s always important that when the situation arises, you need to be spontaneous, take some decisions on your own in the middle, which we did not do in a couple of games.”

“We did do that in the couple of games but there has to be a collective effort and that’s what we are looking for. You could have seen some special overs from some of our bowlers in the past but then we are not really putting it all together as a unit. So the discussions are how to do it as a team, how to do it as a bowling unit. Discussions for death overs or power-play remains the same, we got to do it as a collective unit and that is one thing we are aiming for and hopefully we will get it right in the next game to get closer to two points for the team.”

Unadkat felt the key to getting those two points for Mumbai was following what skipper Rohit Sharma said about not panicking in his dressing room speech. “This team has seen it all. They have the most number of trophies, they have seen lows, they have come back from those lows too. Someone like Rohit bhai obviously knows how to handle the situation.”

“It’s always important to not panic when you’re not doing well, because to come out of that situation, you need calmness in the mind. When that’s there, you make the right decisions. Everyone of us have to be on that page where we’re calm in the middle.”

Unadkat further opined that accepting the presence of pressure should spur Mumbai to do things differently in order to break their winless run. “Yes, pressure is going to be there, it’s always there. Doesn’t matter if you have won five out of six games or you’ve not won any games. The pressure is going to be there. So then, how to remain calm and make those decisions in those situations depends on whether you panic or don’t.”

“Pressure’s there but the pressure is pushing us to do well and not pushing us to panic, that’s where we want to be as a team. That’s what Rohit bhai (Rohit Sharma) said and that’s what everyone in the team is saying.”

–IANS