Will Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings Qualify For 2022 IPL Playoffs?
No other IPL franchises have been as dominant in IPL history as the Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Mumbai (5) has won the most IPL championships in history, while CSK (4) are in second place. Bookmakers nearly always tend to have MI and CSK in their top three IPL franchises, likely to win the IPL Championship at the start of each IPL.
The one exception was at IPL 2021 when CSK were not in the top four to win the IPL Championship, and CSK upset the bookmakers when they went on to win their 4th IPL Championship.
MI and CSK Have Horror Start
If you put your money on MI or CSK to win IPL 2022, you will be sweating because both teams have had a terrible start to the 2022 IPL. Mumbai Indians have had their worst start in IPL history, having lost all 6 games so far and now sit at the bottom of the IPL points table as they are yet to win a game and open their account.
CSK also had a bad start and lost their first four games to drop to 9th place on the IPL points table. They bounced back in game five and pulled off a win, but…..
The poor start for Mumbai Indians and CSK has shocked their fans and upset their odds to win the 2022 IPL Championship. At the time of this writing, Mumbai Indians are the least likely to win the 2022 IPL trophy having odds of 51, while CSK is the second most unlikely team to win the IPL Trophy with odds of 19.
Reasons For Mumbai’s Poor Performance
Rohit Sharma got a lot of credit for leading Mumbai Indians to multiple IPL championships. It was one of the reasons he got the push to become the next captain of the Indian cricket team after Virat Kohli.
Sharma hasn’t looked very impressive either with the bat or his leadership skills in IPL 2022. One of the main reasons for that is that the Mumbai Indians decided to make multiple changes to their core team during the 2022 IPL auction. This was a baffling move for the Mumbai Indians as they should have kept their core team together as they had a winning formula that seemed to work just about every IPL.
Since they did not win IPL 2022, the owners decided to let go of some of their key players, including H Pandya, K Pandya and T Boult. Their absence is now clearly being felt in the Mumbai Indians line-up, and they are struggling with their batting and bowling.
Reasons For CSK’s Poor Performance
CSK came in as the defending champions, and everyone expected them to be a threat this season as they do have a good side on paper. What surprised everyone was the decision from MS Dhoni to step down as CSK captain and hand over the leadership role to R Jadeja just before IPL 2022 started.
Whether CSK planned this move all along or this was a sudden decision is hard to tell. What we can tell is that the move did not work very well for CSK as Jadeja appeared like a rabbit caught in the headlights. CSK did not look like the confident, settled team they are known to be and they struggled during their first four games.
CSK is also struggling to get their playing XI right and get their batting order right. One big weakness for CSK at the moment is their bowling department as D Chahar, who has been a key bowler for CSK, is out injured.
Can MI and CSK End Up Making The Playoffs?
We are close to mid-ways in IPL 2022 and the pressure will increase greatly on CSK and the MI with each game. CSK and MI will not be thinking of making the playoffs as of now, as the two teams need to string together four or five consecutive wins in order to regain their confidence and push themselves into the top 6 teams.
Our experts feel that this is going to be difficult this season for MI and CSK because some of the other IPL franchises look a lot more balanced and powerful. The two new IPL franchises, the Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, have already become serious contenders this season.
If MI and CSK cannot turn their act around in the next three to four games, they will not make the playoffs this season and will have to rethink their team composition and prepare for IPL 2023.
