‘Don’t think it’s a case of being up to the mark’ - Shane Bond throws his weight behind Cameron Green following rough night at Ekana

The 63rd game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 featured a clash between the Krunal Pandya-led Lucknow Super Giants and the five-time champions Mumbai Indians at the Ekana Sports City Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday, May 16.

Through brilliant knocks by Krunal Pandya and Marcus Stoinis, Lucknow managed to post 177 runs on the board. During the run chase, the five-time champions got off to a good start as Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma looked to be in good rhythm. However, Cameron Green and Tim David were unable to finish the game for Mumbai as they succumbed to a narrow defeat.

After the loss, several questions were raised over the form of Green. The Australian all-rounder was roped in by Mumbai for a whopping INR 17.5 crore at the IPL 2023 auction, and with such a price tag comes a lot of expectations as well. The 23-year-old has played 13 matches in the tournament so far, where he has notched up 281 runs and taken six wickets. In the clash against Lucknow, Green managed to score an unbeaten four runs in six deliveries, failing to propel his side to a win.

Seeing that questions were beginning to be asked over Green’s form, Mumbai's bowling coach Shane Bond came forward to the Australian all-rounder’s defence.

"I don’t think it’s a case of being up to the mark. If you look over the last few games, and we have won the games, he’s just slid down to number seven. He hasn’t batted, and the same tonight - a handful of balls. He couldn’t get the runs, but he has still been an important part of our team," Bond said in the post-match press conference.

"He was at three at the top of the tournament and did a great job for us. As it’s turned out, we’ve just used other players and Surya [Suryakumar] in particular, who has pushed up to number three, which has pushed Greenie to the backend of the innings," he added.