3 teams that would love a mega auction post IPL 2024 ft. Mumbai Indians
Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 culminated with the Kolkata Knight Riders securing a well-deserved title victory on May 26. They chased down 114 and prevailed over the SunRisers Hyderabad by eight wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) also did well to reach the playoffs but failed to go a few steps further to claim the coveted trophy.
Most of the teams would be fairly impressed by their performances in the 2024 season. However, few of them would look to have a major overhaul and pick the right players in the IPL 2024 mega auction.
#1 Gujarat Titans
The Gujarat-based franchise reached the final in the last two seasons (lifting the title in 2022) under the leadership of Hardik Pandya. However, with Pandya choosing to join the Mumbai Indians ahead of the 2024 season disturbed the team's combination. Moreover, Shubman Gill, who had never captained an IPL team, was handed the leadership role.
As a result, the Titans finished in the eighth position with only five wins in 14 league matches. Although Sai Sudharsan (527) and Gill (426) were impressive with their run-scoring appetite, none of the other batters stepped up for the franchise. The likes of David Miller and Vijay Shankar couldn't leave a significant impact.
In the bowling unit, Mohit Sharma returned with the most expensive figures in an innings, while the likes of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed couldn't be potent enough with their wicket-taking abilities. The rest of the unit was fairly inexperienced, and the Titans would look to secure services of better options in the mega auction.
#2 Mumbai Indians
Five-time champions, Mumbai Indians finished at the bottom position in the points table with only four victories in 14 league matches. With a new but experienced captain in Pandya, MI didn't pose a strong challenge to their opponents this season.
Although Rohit Sharma (417) was the top-scorer for Mumbai, he struggled for consistency. Moreover, Suryakumar Yadav (345) and Ishan Kishan (320) could only play a handful of good knocks. The biggest letdown was skipper Pandya, who could score only 216 runs and pick up 11 wickets.
In terms of bowling performances, Jasprit Bumrah was a standout performer with 20 scalps at an economy of 6.48. However, apart from Piyush Chawla (13), none of the other bowlers couldn't help the team's cause. The key focal point is the lack of support to contain the opposition team.
#3 Delhi Capitals
The Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals had a decent campaign with seven wins in 14 league matches. However, looking deep down into their performance and team combinations, they didn't look convincing, to say the least. The bowling unit was impressively led by Khaleel Ahmed (17) and Mukesh Kumar (17), while Kuldeep Yadav returned with 16 scalps.
However, the likes of Rasikh Salam and Anrich Nortje proved to be expensive for the franchise. Moreover, they had a dearth of pace-bowling all-rounders, an area they would look to bolster in the mega auction.
In the batting department, few of the players like Pant, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Jake Fraser-McGurk, and Abishek Porel were impressive. Especially, Pant returned as the finest batter with 446 runs, followed by Stubbs with 378 runs.
However, experienced players, David Warner and Prithvi Shaw failed badly, aggregating less than 200 runs each. If the franchise decides to let them go, they will certainly need to secure the services of experienced batters in the mega auction.