Five-time champions Mumbai Indians were a busy team, completing a successful outing at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 mini auction in Kochi on Friday (December 23). MI, who have failed to make the Playoffs stage over the last two season, are keen on turning their form around and challenge for the title once again.
Skipper Rohit Sharma has the big task of replacing top all-rounder Kieron Pollard, who announced his retirement from IPL earlier this year. The Mumbai Indians management went all out to buy young Australia all-rounder Cameron Green at the IPL 2023 mini auction.
Green became the second-most expensive buy in the history of IPL, going for Rs 17.5 crore to MI, behind only Sam Curran. The young Australian will be the obvious replacement for Pollard and will join fellow Aussie cricketers Tim David and possibly Jhye Richardson or Jason Behrendorff in the MI playing XI.
2__0__2__3__ _____ ______ _#OneFamily #AalaRe #DilKholKe #MumbaiIndians #TATAIPLAuction pic.twitter.com/vD6XBlTEGo
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) December 24, 2022
Skipper Rohit will also be hoping that England pacer Jofra Archer will be fit enough to play in the IPL 2023 after missing entire last season due to injury. Archer is expected to form a mouth-watering pace attack with Jasprit Bumrah.
Mumbai have enough fire power at the top led by the likes of Rohit and Ishan Kishan followed by world No. 1 T20 batter Suryakumar Yadav. The middle-order looks secure too with Tilak Varma and David. It remains to be seen if MI’s ideal playing XI can turn their fortunes around.
Mumbai Indians Probable Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Cameron Green, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jhye Richardson/Jason Behrendorff.
Mumbai Indians FULL squad
Wicketkeepers: Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs (SA), Vishnu Vinod.
Batters: Rohit Sharma, Tim David (AUS), Ramandeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Dewald Brevis (SA).
All-rounders: Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Duan Jansen (SA), Cameron Green (AUS).
Bowlers: Jofra Archer (ENG), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshad Khan, Jason Behrendorff (AUS), Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Raghav Goyal, Piyush Chawla, Jhye Richardson (AUS)
