Mumbai Indians will enter the 16th edition of the Tata Indian Premier League with a young and new-look squad led by the Indian national team captain Rohit Sharma. The 5-time champions will be without the services of the recently retired veteran and long-term player of the team Kieron Pollard and the pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who is ruled out of the entire season courtesy of a back injury.
This means the MI will have to re-look at their combinations from the last season, but as always, we can expect exciting recruits in the form of all-rounder Cameroon Green and Jofra Archer, who didn’t feature in the last edition due to his string of injuries over the previous few years.
Mumbai Indians Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Jofra Archer, Tim David, Mohd Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kartikeya, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal
With the new season approaching in less than a month, we will look at the possible playing of the Mumbai Indians in their opening contest when they take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in an away fixture on the 2nd of April 2023 at the Chinaswamy Stadium.
Predicted Starting XI for MI in IPL 2023
Openers: Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan
Rohit Sharma, the skipper of the Mumbai Indians team, will be, as usual, the side’s opener in the 16th edition of IPL. The right-hander is the 3rd highest run-getter in the league scoring 5764 runs at an average of 30.66 and a strike rate of just over 130 in his 221-match-long IPL career. In all likelihood, Rohit will be the opening partner for the young Ishan Kishan despite ordinary returns in the last few editions.
Ishan Kishan, the most expensive Indian player in the auction, is set to have an extended run as the opener of the MI team following his impressive stint with the national team. Also, Kishan’s record in the IPL is decent; his average is 29 in the 75 games he has played thus far.
Middle-order: Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Dewald Brevis, and Tim David
Like Ishan Kishan, the Tilak Verma and Dewald Brevis duo are touted as the future stars of the Mumbai Indians team. Tilak, the youngster from Hyderabad, impressed in his debut IPL season last year, scoring 397 runs at a strike rate of 131, and was a shining light for the MI in what was a forgettable IPL for the team. Dewald Brevis is regarded highly in the cricketing circles and, at an early age, has been compared to the great AB De Villiers for his approach to the game. The South African played a huge role for MI last year, and there is no doubt that the 5-time champs will be pinning their hopes on the youngster for the season as well.
Suryakumar Yadav is a sensation in this format of the game and is the no.1 ranked T20I batter in the world at the moment. With the form he is in, Surya will walk into any T20 side, and MI is blessed to have a star like him. Though the team didn’t perform well, Surya was in his element in 2022, scoring 303 runs in the 8 games he featured for the side. The other big fish in the MI middle order is the swashbuckling batter from Australia, Tim David. Like Pollard, now Mumbai’s batting coach, Tim is a powerhouse and can demolish any bowling attack. His presence in the middle-order adds much value to the Mumbai Indians.
All-rounders: Cameron Green and Ramandeep Singh
Cameron Green is set to feature in his maiden IPL following his earth-shattering 17.5 crore buy by the Mumbai Indians in the 2023 mini-auctions. The talented all-rounder from Australia will have to play a huge role in both departments for MI, as the team lacks depth in the bowling department. His batting has improved greatly in the shorter formats, and he can be used as a floater per the team’s requirements.
