Former cricketer and Sri Lanka’s legendary pacer Lasith Malinga has extended support towards his former IPL team Mumbai Indians (MI) after they lost their sixth game in a row. MI has had the worst start to their IPL 2022 campaign, as they lost their sixth consecutive match in the league, and is the only winless team this season so far.

The Rohit Sharma-led side is struggling to open their account, and are not able to stand up to their ‘five-time champions’ tag. The team is just not able to frame the right strategy to start their game on a positive note.

Malinga, who is the bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals this season, shared his thoughts on the team and the players’ ability to make a comeback. He said: “@mipaltan has always been a team of comebacks. Whether or not they get through to the playoffs this year, expect them to have a strong finish to the season. Their core group of players and the support staff definitely have the quality to pull them back.”

Even the MI skipper Rohit Sharma has not had a good run this season. In the six games played, Sharma has only 114 runs, with his highest score being 41. MI is the most successful franchise in the history of the IPL, and this season’s start has been a nightmare for the team.

This is the first time that Mumbai Indians have lost the first six games of an IPL season. Prior to this, they had suffered five consecutive losses in the year 2014, but they made a massive comeback and made their way into the playoffs.

In their recent encounter against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), skipper KL Rahul’s unbeaten knock of 103* helped his side post a total of 199/4, leaving MI to chase 200 in 20 overs. The Mumbai batting line-up did not give up till the last ball, but the efforts by the batters were just not enough to beat LSG.

They ended up on the losing side for the sixth time as their drought of a win continues this season. Mumbai will next face their biggest rivals Chennai S.