The reigning champions, Mumbai Indians had a mixed IPL auction, with some good buys punctuated by a few underwhelming purchases.
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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)
While the squad is littered with world class players, there are many players who are past their best and would not fit into many T20 teams in the world right now.
The likes of JP Duminy, Suryakumar Yadav, Keiron Pollard and Saurabh Tiwary were good T20 players a few years back, but are no longer the sort of players that you need right now.
Mumbai did well to bring in the explosive Evin Lewis, the versatile Ben Cutting and the highly talented Mustafizur Rahman, as well as retaining the services of Krunal Pandya. Provided all four stay fit they, along with the retained trio, will form a brilliant spine.
This is what MI coach, Mahela Jayawardena had to say after the auction,
“I don’t think there was much of a disappointment as such. I think the two steals for us would be Pollard who came at a reasonable price and the fees we got Evin Lewis and Ben Cutting for. Also, The Fizz [Mustafizur] at that price on Saturday and Pat Cummins, considering the Wankhede wicket. I am not disappointed except for Sanju and KL [Rahul], but the way it panned out, it was always going to be difficult to get them.”
