Mumbai Indians, the team with the most IPL trophies, five, suffered their worst-ever IPL season in 2022 as the Rohit Sharma-led franchise finished at the bottom of the 10-team IPL tournament. MI lost their first 8 matches, but 4 wins in the last 6 meant that they got some positives.
They have made a spate of releases ahead of the IPL 2023 auction, which is slated for December 23 in Kochi, and cleared up their purse. MI will go in the IPL 2023 mini-auction with a sizeable purse of INR 20.55 crore.
Player released by Mumbai Indians: Kieron Pollard (retired), Daniel Sams, Fabian Allen, Riley Meredith, Tymal Mills, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Anmolpreet Singh, Aryan Juyal, Basil Thampi, Rahul Buddhi, Sanjay Yadav
A total of 405 players will go under the hammer in the upcoming IPL 2023 auction, of which 273 are Indians and 132 are overseas players.
Over the past 15 seasons, Mumbai Indians have had a few of the best overseas players in the history of the IPL, such as Pollard and Malinga while their Indian core has been their strength. Once again they have retained their strong Indian core and a few other overseas superstars; they will also want some more firepower in the overseas department.
Here are 3 superstar overseas players that the Mumbai Indians might target in the IPL 2023 auction:
Ben Stokes (base price 2 crore)
Don’t be surprised if MI splurge a major chunk of their INR 20 crore on one cricketer only: Ben Stokes. For they are desperately looking for an all-rounder after the release-cum-retirement of Kieron Pollard, who had a poor IPL season.
Ben Stokes will return to the IPL after pulling out of last season due to the England workload after becoming their Test captain. But Stokes has retired from ODI cricket.
Their perhaps isn’t a bigger clutch player than Stokes currently. He’s played two match-winning innings in both of England’s victories in 2019 ODI World Cup final and the 2022 T20 WC final, plus has been their main man along with Root in Test cricket.
In his maiden IPL season in 2017, Stokes was the Man of the Tournament when he helped Rising Pune Supergiant reach the final, and then did well for Rajasthan Royals in patches until last year.
Also, it is not to forget that in the 2017 auction, MI was the first franchise to raise their paddle for Ben Stokes, but couldn’t acquire him; they would want to get Stokes this time.
Sam Curran (base price 2 crore)
The other England all-rounder that is going to set the auction room on fire is Sam Curran. The former CSK all-rounder who missed IPL 2022 due to injury is back in the auction pool for IPL 2023.
Curran was already a coveted asset, but now after his scintillating bowling performance in the T20 World Cup – he was Man of the Tournament for taking 13 wickets, 10 out of which came in the death overs, and was also the Man of the Match in the final for his 3-wicket haul – Curran’s status has elevated.
In 32 IPL matches between 2019 and 2021 for Punjab and Chennai, Curran picked up 32 wickets – including a hat-trick – and with the bat, in the IPL he averages 22 at a strike rate of 149 with a couple of fifties.
Mumbai Indians, having released Pollard, Daniel Sams and Fabian Allen, are expected to go hard after the two England all-rounders.
Adam Zampa (base price 1.5 crore)
Mumbai Indians have also released their spinners Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, and Sanjay Yadav. This highlights that their spinners failed to get a grip of the game in the middle overs. If an overseas spinner who excels in this area is Australia’s Adam Zampa, who had helped Australia win the T20 WC 2021 in the UAE.
It was also surprising when Zampa had gone unsold in the last mega-auction. Because since the start of 2021, Zampa has taken 38 wickets in 32 T20Is – only 4 spinners from Full Member nations have taken more in this time period – while keeping a tight economy of 7.28.
Although MI haven’t had many overseas spinners in their history, but Zampa’s quality and the lack of a quality Indian spinner in their camp might mean that they bid aggressively for the Aussie leggie.
