IPL 2019: Mumbai Indians - the right mix of youth and experience
Three-time IPL champions, Mumbai Indians (MI) have a knack of getting into form and winning the tournament every alternate year. Since their first championship win in 2013, where they also managed to win the, now defunct, Champions League T20 tournament, MI have won the tournament in 2015 and 2017 as well.
With a 5th place finish in IPL 2018, MI were in need of certain changes to make the squad the champion squad that it once was. Keeping that in mind, Mumbai traded in Quinton de Kock, the South African wicketkeeper-batsman in the pre-auction, and to balance the books, they had to release Mustafizur Rahman and Akila Dananjaya.
Later during the time for the extension of contracts, MI further released Saurabh Tiwary, Pradeep Sangwan, Mohsin Khan, MD Nidheesh, Sharad Lumba, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, JP Duminy, and Pat Cummins, either due to a dip in performance in or since IPL 2018, or because of the fact that they didn't fit into MI's scheme of things for IPL 2019.
The way the MI owners and management went about in the December 18 auction proves the point that while, on one hand, they respect the experience brought in by the likes of Lasith Malinga (₹2 cr) and Yuvraj Singh (₹1 cr), on the other hand, they are banking upon the energy and excitement of young players such as Barinder Sran (₹3.40 cr), Anmolpreet Singh (₹80 lakhs), Pankaj Jaiswal (₹20 lakhs), and Rasikh Salam Dar (₹20 lakhs).
Just after the auction, Mumbai managed to trade in Jayant Yadav, an off-spinner all-rounder from Delhi Capitals to complete their squad for IPL 2019.
Mumbai Indians are one of the few squads with the right mix of youth and experience. If one has to choose it's best possible playing eleven, there are 4 internationally well-established players, an almost 32-year old forgotten limited-overs cricketer, 3 of whom are quite new/inexperienced to the international scene and 3 uncapped future stars of Indian cricket.
Read more to see who figures in the list.
Opening pair (1 - 2): Rohit Sharma (c) and Quinton de Kock (wk)
Mumbai Indians co-owner, Akash Ambani has confirmed in a post-auction press conference that Rohit Sharma would open the innings for MI in IPL 2019. This comes as a relief for all the fans of MI and Rohit, who wanted him to open the innings instead of playing in the middle-order.
Quinton de Kock is one of the top left-handed batsmen in the world and would play the perfect partner for Rohit at the top. A technically sound batsman, Quinton paces his innings well and has the capability to change gears in the death overs.
He was the second highest run-getter at the recently concluded, Mzansi Super League T20 tournament in South Africa, where he finished the season with 412 runs at a strike rate of 169.54 and an average of 58.85.