The most successful franchise in IPL history, Mumbai Indians will be looking to be only the second team after Chennai Super Kings to retain their title in the upcoming edition of the IPL.
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Things may not have started as well as MI would have hoped for though, as the Mumbai franchise had quite an underwhelming auction a couple of weeks back.
Heading into the auction, Mumbai had already retained skipper Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. The trio formed a world class core, and MI needed some high quality additions to create a formidable squad.
But the auction did not go as planned for the Mumbai franchise, as they missed out on a couple of good Indians players for their side.
This is the MI squad at the end of the auction.
Rohit Sharma (retained 15 crore), Hardik Pandya (retained 11 crore), Jasprit Bumrah (retained 7 crore), Kieron Pollard (5.4 crore, RTM), Mustafizur Rahman (2.2 crore), Pat Cummins (5.4 crore), Suryakumar Yadav (3.2 crore), Krunal Pandya (8.8 crore, RTM), Ishan Kishan (6.2 crore), Rahul Chahar (1.9 crore), Evin Lewis (3.8 crore), Saurabh Tiwary (80 lakh), Ben Cutting (2.2 crore), Pradeep Sangwan (1.5 crore), JP Duminy (1 crore), Jason Behrendoff (1.5 crore), Tajinder Dhillaon (55 lakh), Sharad Lumba (20 lakh), Siddhesh Lad (20 lakh), Aditya Tare (20 lakh), Mayank Markande (20 lakh), Akila Dananjaya (50 lakh), Anukul Roy (20 lakh), Anukul Roy (20 lakh), MD Nidheesh (20 lakh)
WEAKNESS :
The absence of an experienced spinner would be an issue for the MI Paltan, especially at the Wankhede. The Mumbai pitch always offers something for spinners, something that Harbhajan Singh capitalized on for the last ten years.
But the great off-spinner is no longer part of the MI setup, as he switched the MI blue for the CSK yellow in the auction. Krunal Pandya, who was brought back for a huge amount, will be given more responsibility this time around, and is expected to fill in the considerable shoes of Bhajji.
On the batting front, the likes of Evin Lewis, JP Duming and Keiron Pollard will need to step up their game and support their skipper in scoring the runs.
Hardik and Krunal will also need to contribute more with the bat, as the brothers along with the foreign stars will need to ensure that not too much pressure is put on the shoulders of Rohit Sharma.
