'You couldn't use him well..' - ex India player lambasts MI over Cameron Green mishap

Mumbai Indians (MI) may have stuttered through to the playoffs for the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) eventually, but the five-time champions' rather unconvincing campaign continues to attract scrutiny. MI's comprehensive loss in Qualifier 2 versus Gujarat Titans (GT) has brought their tactical mishaps and inconsistent execution back into discussions. 

One of the franchise's mishaps that former India batter and leading commentator, Aakash Chopra, highlighted revolves around their premier allrounder Cameron Green, whom the mighty franchise bagged at the mini-auction for a jaw-dropping sum of INR 17.5 crores. 

Bringing the promising Australian cricketer for their experienced allrounder Kieron Pollard, who retired from the premier T20 league ahead of IPL 2023, the MI team management "couldn't use him well", claimed Chopra, insisting that the talented player wasn't given his ideal spot and role in the first half of the ultimately unsuccessful campaign. 

Chopra said batting Cameron Green at No.3 and then moving him down the order in an end-overs aggressor's role before bringing him back to the top order reflected badly on MI think-tank as they seemed unsure of how to extract the maximum value out of the Western Australian. 

Chopra on MI's plans for Cameron Green 

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra said once they made their "extremely expensive" bid on Cameron Green, one would've anticipated MI to be clear and precise in their plans for the prodigious young talent. However, they couldn't quite find his best spot in the line-up and tended to juggle his entry points through the season. 

"Cameron Green was bought for 17.5 crores, he was extremely expensive. What would have been your thinking when you were buying him - Cam Green as an opener or No. 3 batter and then he might give you two or three overs of bowling. That's about it. You wouldn't have thought that he could be a finisher," Chopra said. 

"At that time as well, the discussion was that there was no place in the top four or five, with Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav being there already. If there was no place for Cameron Green in the top four or five, you couldn't use him that well in the first half," he added. 

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Despite imprecise usage in the first half, Green could feel satisfied with his individual run in IPL 2023 as he finished his maiden stint with an impressive 452 runs in 16 innings, featuring an unbeaten solitary ton, at an average of 50.22 with an explosive strike-rate of 160.28. The youngster even picked up six wickets with his useful medium fast-bowling.