Mumbai Indians' performance has been very disappointing so far: Ponting

“It’s been very disappointing so far. We have not played to the level the team would have liked. We had a very good win in Kolkata chasing a big score. But otherwise, our batting has not been good enough yet. The guys are very aware they have not played as well as they can,” Ponting was quoted as saying by PTI.

The defending IPL champions have lost three of their opening four matches and are currently placed seventh in the points table, just above Kings XI Punjab. Ponting also hinted that, despite the poor results, Mumbai will continue to shuffle their strategy based on the conditions.

“Rohit is willing to do what is right for the team. We decided last night to bring in Martin Guptill up the order. The captain also had made it clear at the start we will pick teams as per the conditions. Whether he will play at No. 4 throughout, I don’t know,” Ponting added.

The former Australian international also pointed out how the team has been affected by the injuries to key players. He said, “Things have not gone well for us. Lendl has been our top scorer over the last two seasons. He had a good opening partnership going with Parthiv Patel which gave us a lot of momentum in the back half of the tournament last year and also made things easy for the middle order. Malinga is, if not the best, very close to being the best T20 bowler. That is a big loss. Also, Kieron Pollard has come into the tournament on the back of a knee reconstruction. And having not played much cricket for over 4-5 months, he’s probably a bit underdone at the start of the tournament”.