IPL 2023 Mini-auction: Mumbai Indians will target foreign spinners during IPL 2023 auction: Following an embarrassing campaign in the last season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians will hope for a better outcome in the upcoming edition of the cash-rich Indian T20 league. MI finished at the bottom of the points table in the IPL 2022 owing to their awful run in the tournament.
One of the major flaws in Mumbai’s squad during the 2022 season was a fairly inexperienced spin department. Although the franchise had the likes of Kumar Kartikeya, Murugan Ashwin and Hrithik Shokeen in the ranks, both the tweakers lacked international exposure which eventually became a headache for the team.
Moreover, the five-time IPL champions had let go of Rahul Chahar, who was single-handedly managing the spin department in the squad in the last couple of years. It seemed, ahead of the IPL 2022 mega-auction, that Chahar had solved a long-standing spin-bowling issue of the franchise in blue and gold, but his departure from the squad re-aggravated the problem.
Notably, ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction, Mumbai Indians (MI) has released 13 players from their previous squad and retained 15 players. The franchise will head to the auction with a purse value of INR 20.55 Crores.
Looking at the flaring issue in the spin bowling department, former Indian spinner, Anil Kumble reckons Mumbai Indians would target the overseas spinners during the mini-auction. Kumble feels the franchise will be searching for a ‘marquee spinner’ who can lead the attack.
“Mumbai Indians don’t have a marquee spinner in their ranks. Kartikeya did really well for them last year. If they have to go for an Indian spinner with experience then they will have to probably go back to Amit Mishra or Piyush Chawla. I don’t see that happening. Perhaps, the only option for them is to go for the overseas spinner. Who will it be? There’s Adil Rashid, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Adam Zampa,” said Kumble while speaking to Jio Cinema.
Kumble added that he would eye getting Sikandar Raza from the auction as he is a multi-dimensional player. Along with his sharp spin bowling abilities, Raza is also a fine striker of the white ball in the middle order.
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“I would probably look towards Sikandar Raza because he can also give you a wonderful middle order batting as well, along with his spin which is not easy to pick, and he has done well in the recent past,” added Kumble.
Notably, Raza is in great form lately. He topped the chart for hitting the most number of sixes in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. The Zimbabwe all-rounder scored 219 runs in eight innings and smashed 11 maximums for his side. On top of that, he also scalped 10 wickets in eight innings during the show-piece event.
Mumbai Indians Retained Players:
Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Madhwal, Hrithik Shokeen, Ishan Kishan, Jason Behrendorff (T), Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Mohd. Arshad Khan, N. Tilak Varma, Ramandeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Arjun Tendulkar, Jofra Archer, Tim David, Tristan Stubbs
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