IPL 2019 auction: Specialist batsman must be high on agenda for well-rounded Mumbai Indians

Note: This article was originally published when the player retention list was announced.

Having missed out on the playoffs for the 11th edition, Mumbai Indians released as many as 10 players ahead of the auction for the 2019 season, including pacers Pat Cummins and Mustafizur Rahman, but have retained a core group of 18 cricketers.

Among those 18, the usual suspects Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard make up a strong inner core that the rest of the team is built around.

Mumbai added one player in the trade window – South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock – which fills up one of the major chinks in Mumbai’s armour from last season.

Retention details / remaining purse:

Retained: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare, Evin Lewis, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff.

Released: Mustafizur Rahman, Pat Cummins, Akila Dananjaya, JP Duminy, Saurabh Tiwary, Tajinder Singh, Mohsin Khan, Pradeep Sangwan, MD Nidheesh, Sharad Lumba.

Traded in: Quinton de Kock (from RCB).

Salary cap available: Rs 11.15 crore.

Slots available: Indian – 6, overseas – 1.

This group of 19 players is a very good squad by itself but Mumbai would be looking at a minimum of two high quality additions in the player auction.

Strengths

Mumbai Indians are pretty sorted in the all-rounder and fast-bowler departments, with plenty of options in the 19-man squad so far. The Pandya brothers are two of the best all-rounders in the format, while Bumrah, McClenaghan, Milne and Behrendorff make up for a decent fast-bowling line-up, along with Hardik of course.

With De Kock, they’ve also got a reliable keeper-batsman and opener to partner Evin Lewis (or Rohit Sharma?)

Weaknesses

If reports in the media are to be believed, Mumbai were looking to trade in Shikhar Dhawan, which would mean they are interested in getting at least one more specialist batsman. That makes sense considering a majority of the run-scoring burden used to fall on captain Rohit in the 2018 season, who once again showed a preference to bat in the middle order.

Despite Markandey impressing early on last season, Mumbai still do not have a top-drawer spin bowler right now and could be looking to buy one, especially after letting go of Akila Dananjaya. This was a gaping hole even before last season began and one that must be addressed this time around.

As far as fast bowlers, a more reliable option than McClenaghan for the death overs could be an area of concern that the think-tank might want to address.

Players to look out for in auction

Mumbai can buy seven more players in the auction if they want to – in Rs 11.5 crore – but only one of them can be a foreigner.

Since a top-order batsman is their main slot to fill up, the following options seem the most obvious among the released players: Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Manoj Tiwary, Alex Hales, Brendon McCullum, Sarfraz Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy. (It would be quite interesting to see Gambhir play for Mumbai Indians!)

Mumbai don’t have too many good options to pick a top spinner from. Axar Patel* seems to be the best available choices.

Considering MI also let go of Cummins and Mustafizur, they might think of buying another decent fast bowler, with plenty of options available in the released players’ list.

As for fast bowlers, there’s no dearth of options to pick from. Among the Indians, there is Mohammed Shami, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohit Sharma and Barinder Sran. Among the foreigners, there’s Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson (who won’t pull out early because of the World Cup unlike the rest of his compatriots), Tom Curran, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, and former Mumbai Indians player Corey Anderson.

(Clarification: Shahbaz Nadeem was originally listed as an option for Mumbai but he was traded to SRH from Delhi Daredevils)