There's something about Mumbai Indians and their opening IPL match defeats. The last time MI won their inaugural match of the season was back in 2012, when they beat Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets. Since then, they have lost their opening games in four consecutive seasons including Saturday's fixture against Rising Pune Supergiants.
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Incidentally, in two of those seasons where they lost the first tie – 2013 and 2015 – Mumbai went on to win the title. In 2014, MI lost all their five matches of the UAE leg while last year, they posted their first win after four straight losses.
Mumbai Indians' senior player and former captain Harbhajan Singh was equally clueless about his team's habit of losing the first match. "I wish I knew the reason," he said on Saturday. "We'd like to have won the first game and started on a good note. It's a game where you can give 110 per cent or 120 per cent. Result is not in our control. We tried our best with whatever total we had on board.
"Hopefully, it should not be like five games MI don't play well and then we suddenly wake up and start playing good. We need to start playing good cricket and hopefully it will happen in Kolkata (against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 13)."
Harbhajan was the only saving grace for MI against RPS, with a knock of 45* besides picking up the lone wicket in his team's nine-wicket loss. In stark contrast to the ICC World T20 semifinal when West Indies chased down India's 192/2 nine nights ago, MI struggled to make 121/8, though it wasn't a bad pitch to bat on.
"The Mumbai wicket is probably the best to bat on. It was just poor shot selection that made us where we landed. We just need to work on our game a bit more, and sometimes we think there's hardly any time in the middle. But we need to take more time as a batting unit," Harbhajan said.
Rohit Sharma's choice to bat first surprised many. They may have defended totals previously but they had a certain Lasith Malinga, who is not here yet. So, would one expect a few changes after the opening loss?
Harbhajan said: "The management has decided to use horses for courses. Depending on the wicket we get in Kolkata or then when we come back, there could be some changes. I am not the one to select the team but as a senior player they ask me what I feel and I give my suggestion on what the combination should be."
Mumbai Indians travelled to Kolkata on Sunday for their second fixture.
