IPL 2023: Mark Boucher Reflects on the Journey of Mumbai Indians

The Mumbai Indians franchise had a season better than expected. After finishing at the bottom last time and lingering at the 9th position in the first half of the season to finishing in the Qualifier 2, the journey has been a good one. While there were some positives in the form of uncapped players grabbing the opportunity well, the player injuries, as well as top-order batters’ form were a matter of concern.

Mark Boucher, who joined the team as coach earlier this year, reflected on Mumbai Indians‘ campaign. Mumbai Indians’ batting line-up was heavily dependent on Suryakumar Yadav to score runs. The batter had a rough start to the season but got into the groove soon, making his maiden IPL century. Mark Boucher then spoke about the injuries of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer. He acknowledged that players will be compelled to look elsewhere if they are unable to get past the injuries.

“I think it’s time to just sit back, reflect a bit,” says Mumbai Indians coach Mark Boucher

“In the bowling, you lose two of your stars in the bowling lineup, it’s going to create a couple of holes and we try to fix it up as best as possible. You know, hopefully, the guys can get over their injuries. If they can’t, then we might have to look at other places. And there are so many things that we can talk about. Not for me to start opening up a can of worms now, it would be stupid. I think it’s time to just sit back, reflect a bit, take the emotion out of it, and make some good sound cricketing decisions,” Boucher said.

In Qualifier 2, Mumbai Indians’ decision to bowl first backfired as the team conceded 233 runs. Shubman Gill reached his third century in the 4th match, taking the game away single-handedly. Coming out to chase, Mumbai Indians could not get going as Ishan Kishan was ruled out of the match because of a concussion. Akash Madhval was asked to open with Rohit Sharma. The falling of wickets at regular intervals made the task even more difficult. Mark Boucher concluded by acknowledging that the target was a bit high. With Mumbai Indians out of the IPL, Gujarat Titans will face Chennai Super Kings in the finals on May 28.