Mumbai Indians, the five-time winners of the Indian Premier League (IPL), had the most intriguing outing at the mega auction last month. They remained curiously quiet through a major portion of both the days of the auction, leaving most, if not all, utterly befuddled with their strategy. But at the end of the riveting two days in Bengaluru, Mumbai walked out with one of the strongest teams on paper.
Mumbai Indians were one of the two dominant teams during the previous IPL cycle - 2018 to 2021 - where they won two titles which included a memorable 2020 season - the best performance by an IPL team in any season - and a forgettable 2021 where they had failed to make the playoffs.
Ahead of the start of the new cycle, Mumbai had to make a tough choice - naming their retention list. Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah picked themselves. Kieron Pollard remains irreplaceable. Hence, their biggest dilemma was picking between Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya. They went with the former and shelled out a colossal amount to buy back the second, but Hardik was chosen by Gujarat Titans as one of their draft picks.
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{{/usCountry}}The four other notable buys Mumbai made were Tim David, the free agent from Singapore, Jofra Archer, Daniel Sams and Tymal Mills. Although, Archer will remain unavailable for this edition of the tournament.
So how does Mumbai Indians stack up for the 15th edition of the IPL...
STRENGTHS
With Ishan back, Mumbai have a large part of their core batting back. Ishan and Rohit with open, followed by Suryakumar at No.3 and Pollard at No.5. The young Tilak Varma and the dynamic batter Tim David will take the No.4 and 6 slots respectively. And hence Mumbai look almost perfect as far as their batting is concerned.
Like Chennai, they also have a fair share of left and right-handed batters and top-quality pace power hitters in Pollard and David.
On the bowling front, despite Archer's absence, Mumbai have a formidable death-bowling pair in Bumrah and Mills.
WEAKNESSES
Mumbai Indian lack quality spin attack. Murugan Ashwin, Mayank Markande and Sanjay Yadav remain the only spinners to choose from, none of whom have any international experience.In the last three seasons, Markande has bowled in just four innings and picked only five wickets in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021/22 at an economy rate of 6.92. Ashwin took picked as many wickets in the domestic tournament, somewhat at a better economy rate of 5.57. He bowled in 22 innings in the last three IPL seasons, picking 16 wickets.
The squad also doesn't have a powerplay-bowling specialist, leaving Mumbai with a big Trent Boult-sized gap to fill and implying that Mumbai have to squeeze out two of Bumrah's overs in the powerplay and keep the remaining two for the death overs.
OPPORTUNITIES
He wasn't among the big talking points during India's U-19 World Cup campaign in 2020, where he had scored only 86 runs in three innings, but he has had an impressive run in domestic cricket thereafter. In 16 Lista A innings, he scored 784 runs at 52.26 and in T20 cricket, he pulled off 381 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate of 143.77. No wonder, Mumbai shelled out INR 1.7 crore for the youngster.
Another young talent to watch out for is, South Africa's Dewald Brevis, a.k.a 'Baby AB', the 2022 U-19 World Cup star who had finished the tournament as the highest run-scorer, following which Mumbai shelled out INR 3 crore to rope him in. He scored 506 runs in six matches at 84.33 with two centuries and three half-centuries, all of which came batting at No.3. Hence, Brevis will be directly challenging Tilak for a spot in the XI.
THREATS
Despite all permutations and combinations, Mumbai's bowling still looks thin compared to their attack in the previous cycle.
Mills and Bumrah are absolute certainties, but who will be the third pacer? Mumbai need a bowler who can handle the new balls. Daniel Sams has not picked a single wicket in the powerplay in IPL in the last two seasons, but conceded at 6.78 runs per over in five innings. Overall in T20s, he has picked 10 wickets in 41 innings in the last two years in the powerplay with an economy rate of 7. The other option is Unadkat, who has picked four wickets during the period in IPL in 13 innings at 7.46 runs per over.
If Mumbai pick Unadkat, Sams will likely be replaced with Fabien Allen to add to their batting depth while one of the spinners in Markander or Sanjay will have to sit out.
Potential XI: Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma (captain), N Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Fabien Allen, Tymal Mills, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande/Murugran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah.