Mumbai Indians need to take a leaf out of CSK's/RR's book and develop local players, instead of shopping at the auction table or travelling to watch foreign leagues. Were they not watching the Mumbai Ranji team have at least two decent performers (Shoaib Sheikh and Sid Chitnis) in SMAT? Or their own player, Suman, lead the SMAT batting charts? Same bloke they let go during the auction? Or Rohit Dahiya and Rush Kalaria, who took plenty of wickets to help Gujarat win the title?
Instead, we saw them bid for Aaron Finch, Vinay Kumar and Parthiv Patel. Look at Vinay Kumar's performance in the last season for KKR, and also Parthiv Patel's strike rate, then decide. Then look at existing squad member Lendl Simmons' record last year. Unsurprisingly, they haven't won a game.
They may have to shake up the lineup a great deal. Three poor games for Finch and maybe Malinga should have both on the bench- they have Simmons and de Lange waiting. Why, even Tare, with decent T20 figures and a good SMA season behind him, getting benched for known T20 misfit Parthiv Patel is baffling- as also Chappell's Boy Unmukt Chand getting a game. They haven't handled their decently-fast bowler Pawan Suyal and leggie Gopal well at all- both need to be played into form over a stretch of games, not rotated with the likes of Jazz and Suchith. They may also need to pack the top order with Rohit, Simmons, Pollard and Corey, to stand a chance of posting big scores more often- but not give Pollard or Corey a single over if they wish to strengthen their bowling.