Five-time champions Mumbai Indians suffered their worst-ever finish to an IPL tournament last season, as in IPL 2022, Rohit Sharma’s side grabbed the wooden spoon in the 10-team tournament.
Mumbai recognized their weakness and shortcoming was more in the bowling department last season and have stocked it well ahead of IPL 2023. First, they traded in Jason Behrendorff from RCB, and then went on to buy Jhye Richardson and Duan Jansen in the auction, along with veteran Piyush Chawla. Seam-bowling power-hitting all-rounder Cameron Green was their biggest signing in the IPL auctions. All these are big upgrades from last season’s Daniel Sams, Unadkat, Thampi, Tymal Mills, and Riley Meredith.
Mumbai Indians
Players bought: Cameron Green (INR 17.5 crore), Jhye Richardson (INR 1.5 crore), Piyush Chawla (INR 50 lakh), Duan Jansen (INR 20 lakh), Vishnu Vinod (INR 20 lakh), Shams Mulani (INR 20 lakh), Nehal Wadhera (INR 20 lakh), Raghav Goyal (INR 20 lakh).
They all will play complementary and supporting roles to the two big guns: Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah, making it a really fiesty pace attack.
The Mumbai Indians have arguably the best fast-bowling attack among all the franchises in IPL 2023.
What will be Mumbai Indians’ bowling attack in IPL 2023?
Firstly, since the IPL will return to the home and away format from IPL 2023, Mumbai Indians will play 7 of their league matches at the pacy, bouncy Wankhede Stadium, where traditionally their pacers have done well, and their batters have helped it make a fortress. In the home matches, and in places where spinners are not effective too much, Mumbai will go with 4 pacers.
Archer and Bumrah will be their first-choice pacers, with either or both of Richardson and Behrendorff forming a threatening pace trio/quartet. MI can use all-rounder Ramandeep Singh, or even give a debut to Arjun Tendulkar, which will allow them to play an extra overseas batter – Tristan Stubbs likely – instead of an overseas pacer. Since Cameron Green, their big-ticket signing, will start bowling after April 13, as ordered by the Cricket Australia (CA), that will shift in MI’s combination, and Richardson/Behrendorff can be benched when Green is available to bowl.
Talking of spinners, though Piyush Chawla is the senior leg-spinner and someone MI were happy to buy again, he will face tough competition from youngsters Kumar Kartikeya and Hrithik Shokeen, both of whom were impressive in their debut tournament last season. Not to forget Tim David can bowl off-spin too.
At the moment, Shokeen, who can also be a handy lower-order batsman, seems ahead of Kartikeya, and maybe even Chawla. They can play two spinners in places like Chennai and Jaipur.
Here is, we feel, Mumbai’s bowling best attack for home matches: Bumrah, Archer, Richardson/Behrendorff, Green, Shokeen, Ramandeep
If they play want to play two spinners, then Chawla could come in for Ramandeep or the extra overseas pacer.
