‘Lot more going on…’: Michael Clarke says Mumbai Indians camp divided, not performing as a team

IPL 2024: Former Australian captain Michael Clarke believes that Mumbai Indians (MI) camp is divided and is not performing as a team. He said victory for MI is wishful thinking this IPL season, and that there’s something more brewing than what appears on the surface. 

Talking about MI’s chances of making it to the playoffs, Clarke said, “Yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s wishful thinking for Mumbai this entire IPL.” 

"I think there's a lot more going on than what we are seeing on the outside and you can't have that many good players and perform this inconsistently…So, I think there are different groups inside that changing room and something is not working, they are not gelling together, they are not playing as a team," Clarke said on Star Sports Cricket Live.

Mumbai Indians, despite boasting some match winners like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Tim David and Jasprit Bumrah, had failed to remain consistent and bag victories this season. It lost six of the nine matches it played. The victories, too, came on the back of individual performances by pacer Jasprit Bumrah and batter Romario Shepherd.

"Individual brilliance can get them over the line, if Rohit Sharma comes in and gets another hundred or Hardik does something with the bat or Bumrah bowls like a genius again, you never know…I think to win big tournaments you need to be a team and not just have individual performances and unfortunately they haven't played well as a team so I hope they turn it around, but I can't see them winning this game," he added.

Speculations have been rife about a divide in the MI camp after the sudden pre-season change in captaincy. Rohit Sharma, who headed the team, was unceremoniously replaced by Hardik Pandya. Pandya who had led Gujarat Titans to the finals in the previous season, has faced criticism and incessant booing from the audience, which is expected to have impacted his performance.

Gujarat Titans fans were left disappointed after Pandya decided to jump ship, while Mumbai Indians fans were disappointed at the removal of Sharma from the helm. As things stand now, MI need to win their remaining five matches to even have a shot at the playoffs.

MI will take on Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday in Lucknow.