IPL 2022: "You'll see a turnaround in Mumbai Indians' bowling" - Shane Bond

It has been a torrid start for record five-time former champion Mumbai Indians (MI) to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. It has lost its opening three matches and is placed in the ninth spot, looking for a turnaround. However, bowling coach Shane Bond has affirmed that there will be a turnaround in MI's bowling.

"It's been a real mixed bag from us, I suppose, from a bowling unit. You look at the last game; the first ten overs were fantastic. We had a couple of overs that got away from us. It's been a little bit of a pattern for us, that we've done some excellent stuff, we've taken out a number of the big players exactly how we thought we would – but when the game's been in the balance, we've gone for some overs of 20-plus. And, when you go for overs of 20-plus, you lose matches," said Bond during the pre-match press conference on Friday.

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"It's a simple fix. If we can stick to our plans and stick to the areas we want to bowl when the pressure comes on, then I'll think you'll see a turnaround. As I said, I think we've seen that we've been successful when we've executed our plans the way we wanted to. We saw it in the last game against Andre Russell. Venkatesh Iyer, we made him work hard for a fifty and bowled well to him. We've just had one player who's come out in each game and hit 30-plus off sort of 10-11 balls which has taken the game away from us. I look at those things we've done against those players, and we haven't bowled where we said we would bowl. So in terms of the bowling, it's simple. If we say we have our plans and stick to those, generally we're pretty successful," Bond added.

MI will be taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) next in Match 18 of IPL 2022 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Saturday night. Bond has asserted that his side remains motivated, despite the opening three losses. Its last loss came against former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), courtesy of Pat Cummins' destructive innings of a 15-ball 56.