"If your name starts with 'J' and you can bowl fast" - Aakash Chopra's hilarious take on MI's pacers for IPL 2023
Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has observed a similarity in the pacers that Mumbai Indians (MI) have assembled for the IPL 2023 season through retention, trade as well as auction.
Having already retained the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer, MI traded in Jason Behrendorff and also bought his Western Australia teammate Jhye Richardson. Chopra claimed in a funny way that Mumbai were keen on getting speedsters whose name start with the letter 'J'.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Aakash Chopra had to say about MI's pace battery:
"Jio also starts from 'J' and with the likes of Jhye, Jofra, Jason and Jasprit, we realized that if your name starts with 'J' and you can bowl fast, Mumbai Indians might come looking for you."
MI IPL 2023 team: Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal.
Aakash Chopra impressed with SRH's auction
Aakash Chopra, meanwhile, praised the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) management for being pretty clear in their thought process at the IPL 2023 auction. They had already retained a strong bowling core, and focused more on strengthening their batting by picking up the likes of Mayank Agarwal and Harry Brook.
SRH also sorted their wrist-spin issue by signing Adil Rashid.
On this, Chopra stated:
"Mayank Agarwal as an opener, Harry Brook as a lower-order batter and then Heinrich Klassen, well done SRH. Brook has been sensational against Pakistan and the pitch in Hyderabad will suit him. They also sorted their spin department by signing Adil Rashid and Mayank Markande."
SRH IPL 2023 team: Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen, Vivrant Sharma, Adil Rashid, Mayank Dagar, Akeal Hosein, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Anmolpreet Singh, Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Kartik Tyagi, and Umran Malik.