IPL Mumbai Indians
Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani’s bid of $111.9 million to own the team rights of the Mumbai team – later christened as the Mumbai Indians – made it the costliest team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. Add to that, stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shaun Pollock to go along with the eccentric but youthful, Harbhajan Singh, and Robin Uthappa, we have a team that is a fine blend of experience and fresh legs.
The team was named as the Mumbai Indians, Hrithik Roshan was roped in as the brand ambassador, and former Indian manager, Lalchand Rajput – incidentally also a former Mumbai opener – was named the coach of the team. Reliance Industries, which had bid for the team rights, later added a subsidiary, IndiaWin Sports that would be the managing company for the same. In the auction, Sanath Jayasuriya was the costliest player chosen at $9,75,000, where as Uthappa got a whopping $8,00,00.
The biggest strength for the Mumbai Indians is their high profile players, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shaun Pollock. All of them are all champion cricketers in their own respective professions, Tendulkar and Jayasuriya are great batsmen with loads of experience, whereas Pollock was one of the best pace bowlers around, when he played. Add that to the fact that Tendulkar and Jayasuriya can bowl their quota of overs, while Pollock is a very useful lower middle order batsman means that the team does not lack too much in terms of quality. Tendulkar’s absence in the first match of the IPL did not do any favours to the team, but one can be rest assured of his availability through the rest of the matches. Youngsters like Ajinkya Rahane, who is a hard hitter of the ball, Abhishek Nayyar, a budding all rounder in the making and Saurabh Tiwari – a Dhoni look alike who was a part of the Under-19 World Cup winning squad, form the nucleus of the youth, along with Robin Uthappa, one of the stars of the World T20 Cup. Uthappa though, should realize that the scoop over fine-leg shot is a good shot to surprise the bowler, but attempting it with the conventional fine-leg in place does not make too much batting sense.
Talking about weaknesses, I remember telling a friend; one of the biggest weaknesses of this team is the name, Mumbai Indians! However, jokes aside, the biggest issue with the team is that most of the experienced guys have not yet played a lot of T20 cricket and would need to make that adjustment. Also, Jayasuriya’s bowling after the recurring shoulder injuries, has been on a decline, Ashish Nehra is making a comeback to the team, and the rest of them all relatively new, it would be difficult for the Mumbai Indians team to force too many results in their favour if the batsmen fail to deliver.
