Jasprit Bumrah, who had the best economy rate for a bowler in death overs in IPL 2022 (minimum 8 overs), will not be part of the IPL 2023 season as the spearhead India and Mumbai Indians fast bowler recently underwent back surgery, the recovery period from which is estimated to be around till August.
That is the massive blow that Mumbai Indians and their fans had been fearing since the recurrence of Bumrah’s back injury last September, which forced him to miss all the action since then.
Their other injury-forced absentee, heading into the IPL 2023, is Jhye Richardson, who suffered a hamstring injury during the BBL, where he was on fire with the ball. MI have not yet named replacements for Bumrah and Richardson.
The shot in the arm for the five-time champions is the availability, fitness, and form of their other big-price fast bowler – Jofra Archer, who, in the past two months, has made a brilliant return to action after almost two years of injury hiatus.
In the IPL 2023 auction, MI made headlines by signing the emerging Australian all-rounder Cameron Green for INR 17.5 crore. However, trying to fit him in the XI will be a tricky part since Green’s exploits for Australia in T20Is have all come as an opener.
Nonetheless, MI’s batting is a strong unit but their bowling, though improved from last season, is likely to prove once again their weaker section.
Here is the predicted strongest XI of Mumbai Indians (MI) for IPL 2023:
Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Jofra Archer, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff
Mumbai’s first XI still look strong – in fact, their batting is power-packed – but will need the spinners and the Indian all-rounders to step up more than they did last season.
On the bench, they will have plenty of prospective projects- pacer Akash Madhwal and fast-bowling allrounders Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Arshad Khan, and Duan Jansen, and spin all-rounder and domestic stalwart Shams Mulani – all have been impressive and have made strides since last IPL.
With Cameron Green and Tim David, there is a chance that both of their South African power hitters – Brevis and Stubbs – get benched.
Piyush Chawla is the senior spinner while Kumar Kartikeya, who made his IPL debut last year, will also be in contention after a good domestic season, and so will be Arjun Tendulkar, who has been on MI’s bench for the last two seasons, but made significant progress for his new state, Goa, in domestic cricket.
Mumbai Indians squad for IPL 2023:
Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal
