Two of Mumbai Indians’ 4 defeats in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 got here by 12 runs, meaning only two sixes were the difference between winning and losing for the five-time champions. Fast-bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar admitted the side hasn’t yet peaked as a unit, and felt a collective strong performance will make them a giant victory. In IPL 2025, Mumbai Indians have stood as much as their repute of being slow starters, winning only one out of 5 games to this point and being in eighth place within the points table. The Hardik Pandya-led side can be aiming to get their campaign back on the right track in the event that they manage to stop Delhi Capitals’ (DC) unbeaten run on the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday evening.
“Look, it has been an extended time, and I even have gone from one big franchise to a different (CSK to MI), so I feel there are quite a lot of similarities since the mindset is similar, which is to win matches. Plus, when one or two matches are up and down, you haven’t got to panic; you mostly need to imagine which you could win the tournament in any situation.”
“I feel there are similarities, and that is why each teams did well in IPL, because you’ve gotten to imagine in yourself. IPL is a giant tournament, where you’ll be able to win or lose just a few matches. So it is important to come back back after that, and the tournament has just began, some teams are doing well, while some are average.”
“But we have now played well within the last five matches – it’s just that we lost on account of one or two hits. It isn’t like we have now lost by big margins, or any bowler or batter is completely off form. Every batter has made runs, every bowler has bowled well, so there are quite a lot of individual performances within the last five matches.”
“But when there may be a collective performance, and if we do well together, then we might have won the match with a giant margin, which shows the potential of our team. It’s the identical thing, as luck-based things occur in sports because, within the last match, our shots were up and down.”
“For instance, if it had gone for six, then we might have won the match. Within the last match, we lost by two hits, so I feel we played well, and the outcomes will certainly come. But as a team, we’re in good condition, and we’ll move forward in a great way,” said Chahar within the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
Of their 12-run loss to RCB, MI had a giant thing to cheer up when Jasprit Bumrah marked his return to competitive cricket after five months with a tidy spell of 0-29 in his 4 overs. Chahar, who himself handled quite a lot of injuries within the last three years, lauded Bumrah for being at his best after an extended layoff, adding that his execution of a yorker on the Wankhede Stadium was all class.
“He’s very strong-headed. Such as you saw in the primary match, the way in which he bowled after five months, you’ll be able to see the category. It has a big impact, if it wasn’t for Bumrah, we might have scored 20-25 runs extra. So I feel that game was made to a certain extent due to Bumrah’s bowling.”
“As a bowler, I know the way difficult it’s to bowl in your first match after so long. It’s because whenever you come after not having played any cricket for 3 months, essentially the most difficult ball to execute is a yorker. You may bowl a good-length ball or a bouncer. But to bowl a yorker, you would like that confidence in your skill. But right from his first match, he bowled the yorker, and that flow while executing it shows how good a bowler he’s,” he added.
Eyebrows were raised when Bumrah didn’t take up the brand new ball, but Chahar felt it needed to do with the side’s leadership group decisions. “Everyone has the experience to bowl with a brand new ball. So, the team decides sometimes, depending on the match-up.”
“If a selected bowler has taken out a selected batter for a very long time, then he can be the primary one to whom the ball can be thrown. So, that is the strategy of the team as to who will bowl with the brand new ball through which match. But I feel the captain and the coach have decided. So it is feasible that another person will bowl in the following match.”
It is also been a season where MI have unearthed gems like leg-spinner Vignesh Puthur and left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar, all due to their scouting team’s relentless work within the off-season. Chahar signed off by applauding the scouting team’s stellar work, adding that he’s enjoyed being around kids within the team.
“Mumbai has all the time been like this from the beginning. Mumbai eventually built a great team yearly, because they take good domestic players. The scouting team is excellent, and all year long, they put up camps, matches, and send scouts.”
“You see there are such a lot of big names within the Indian team who’ve come from Mumbai’s scouting team, like Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, and plenty of more players who Mumbai has bought within the baseline, which implies no other franchise knew about them, they usually made them such big superstars today.”
“So it’s MI’s specialty that they unearth good players like they spot real diamonds amongst stones. Over the past 10 years, after IPL began, they’ve created this background, and it’s fun to play with the children as you get to learn rather a lot from them. Also, because every individual is different, they create something different to this team,” he concluded.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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