It was surprising for many to see Ishan Kishan as No 3 batsman of Mumbai Indians instead of Suryakumar Yadav. After losing the match to Punjab Kings, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma explained the thought process behind the call. Keep reading to find out Why was Ishan Kishan sent at 3?
What does the skipper think?
Rohit Sharma identified the inability to set a big target on board as the reason for loss in the 17th IPL 2021 match against Punjab Kings. He said, “Not enough runs, exactly. I still feel it’s not a bad wicket to bat on. You can see how Kings won with nine wickets in hand. If you get 150-160 you’re always in the game and that is something we’ve failed in the last two games, we need to look at that. We can look at it either way – their bowlers bowled very well in that powerplay.”
The match saw, Rohit Sharma scoring 62 runs and ending as the highest run scorer for Mumbai Indians. But that was all for Mumbai. The top order batsmen failed to contribute much except of Suryakumar Yadav who added 33 runs off 27 balls. However, he was sent to bat at No 4 but Ishan Kishan walked in at No. 3. While this surprised many, Rohit Sharma had his reasons for the same too.
Why Ishan Kishan was sent at 3
Rohit explained, “Ishan at 3 was just an actual thing, we wanted someone to bat in the middle who plays well against spin and we identified Surya as that player. When it works it looks good, when it doesn’t it looks bad. There’s no one person who makes a decision, it’s the entire unit. We just need to understand how you need to bat and bowl when the conditions are tough.”
He also opined what went wrong while they tried to score runs. “Ishan was tyring to hit but couldn’t get it, even myself. We were trying but the wicket was easy. In the last four games we really batted well in the powerplay but today we failed to do so. We’re missing batting all 20 overs the way we want to. Something we need to look at.”
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