Mumbai Indians, the most successful team in the IPL, will be looking for a record sixth title in the 2022 edition of the tournament. The five-time champions retained their four best players ahead of the mega auction - Captain Rohit Sharma, swashbuckling batsman Suryakumar Yadav, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and aggressive all-rounder Kieron Pollard.
They purchased a total of 21 players during the two-day mega auction, including the costliest buy of the season – Ishan Kishan. Mumbai splurged a whopping Rs 15.25 crore to rope in the aggressive wicketkeeper batsman. Some of their other costly purchases were Tim David (Rs 8.5 crore), Dewald Brevis (Rs 3 crore), Daniel Sams (Rs 2.60 crore) and Tymal Mills (Rs 1.50 crore). They also invested in quite a few uncapped players, including Arjun Tendulkar, son of Sachin Tendulkar.
Full squad
Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishan Kishan, Dewald Brevis, Basil Thampi, M Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Tilak Varma, Sanjay Yadav, Riley Meredith, Mohd Arshad Khan, Anmolpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Rahul Buddhi, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Aryan Juyal, Fabian Allen
Strengths
The biggest strength of the Mumbai Indians is their group of retained players. Little needs to be said about all the four retained players – Rohit Sharma is the greatest IPL captain and among the best batsmen, Jasprit Bumrah is the among the greatest bowlers, Suryakumar Yadav knows how to score big in the middle order, while Kieron Pollard, who has been with the Mumbai Indians since 2010, is now synonymous to them.
They have an explosive pair of openers in Rohit and Ishan Kishan. When Mumbai bought Kishan for Rs 15.25 crore, it was the first time they crossed the ten-crore mark in an auction to acquire a player. There will be pressure on the batsman from Jharkhand to deliver, but he sure knows how to hit blazing knocks, and we have seen him play such knocks for the Indians. Once Kishan gets going, there is no stopping him.
The addition of Tim David and Dewald Brevis, both of whom are big-hitting batsmen, will further bolster Mumbai’s middle order. David has performed exceptionally well in leagues like BBL and PSL. He boasts of a strike rate of nearly 160 in 89 T20 matches. Brevis, on the other hand, is hailed as the younger version of Ab de Villiers for his 360 degree batting. Both these batsmen are exciting additions to the Mumbai Indians family.
Weaknesses
Mumbai Indians spent a whopping Rs 8 crore on Jofra Archer, who is not fully fit to play the IPL this year. Quite amusingly, the franchise already knew that the England all-rounder was unlikely to be fit for the 2022 season, yet they spent crores to avail his services. For nearly a year now, the pacer hasn’t played any cricket due to an elbow surgery. Assumedly, Mumbai Indians snapped him up as an investment for the future seasons.
While the prospect of Bumrah and Archer bowling in tandem sounds lethal, we won’t see it happen this year. The other fast bowling options that they have are Riley Meredith, Tymal Mills, Basil Thampi and Jaydev Unadkat. Unadkat, of course, is a good option, but not too effective in the death overs. Mills, Thampi, and Meredith, meanwhile, bring skills with them but are not dependable bowlers.
How the bowlers fare in the death overs will be interesting to see, especially if Bumrah gets injured. Mumbai no longer boast of the Malinga, Bumrah, and Boult trio, which will be sorely missed by the fans. While Malinga has retired, Boult was not retained.
Predicted playing XI – Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Kieron Pollard, Fabian Allen, Tilak Verma, Murugan Ashwin, Daniel Sams, Jaydev Unadkat, Jasprit Bumrah
