How the Mumbai Indians may line up in IPL 2018
With 3 IPL titles in their bag, the defending champions Mumbai Indians enjoyed a lot of success during the first 10 editions of the tournament. They retained their captain Rohit Sharma, all-rounder Hardik Pandya, and star bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Surprisingly, they let Harbhajan Singh go and added some fresh faces to the squad.
Some of the other notable names missing in the squad include Nitish Rana, Jos Buttler, Parthiv Patel, Lendl Simmons, and Mitchell McClenaghan. There are some exciting arrivals in the form of Evin Lewis, Pat Cummins, JP Duminy, Ben Cutting, and Mustafizur Rahman.
On that note, let’s take a look at the likely starting XI of Mumbai Indians.
Openers
1. Evin Lewis
Arguably one of the most destructive opening batsmen in world cricket right now. The 26-year-old left-hander from Trinidad & Tobago had a great 2017 and Mumbai Indians bought him for ₹3.8 crores. He caught the attention of the cricketing world when he demolished the Indian bowling line up to score 125 off 62 balls in a T20I game, his second against India. He can clear boundaries at will and is expected to light up the Wankhede.
2. Ishan Kishan
The left-handed wicket-keeper batsman is one of the players to watch out for in the IPL 2018. The 19-year-old played well for Gujarat Lions last campaign as he scored 319 runs for them at an average of 21. Mumbai Indians went all guns blazing for Ishan Kishan in the auction and bought him for a whopping ₹6.2 crores. He is expected to open the batting along with Evin Lewis and wear the wicketkeeping gloves as well.