5-time champions, change in captaincy, new captain traded and roped amidst drama, will MI keep their hands on the title for the 6th time? Will they say #DuniyaHilaDengeHum again?
Mumbai Indians enter IPL 2024 as a most talked team as they witness a sea of change. They will have a new captain in the form of Hardik Pandya who was traded from Gujarat Titans in the most dramatic way leaving the cricket fraternity shocked. Rohit Sharma who helped Mumbai Indians win 5 titles within 8 years of captainship from 2013 to 2020 was kind of sacked from captaincy despite having a very good run in the last season where he took MI into the playoffs.
However, as usual, Mumbai Indians management was again smart enough to have a very good auction. They have created a core group of young and experienced Indian players along with some very good overseas picks. Their bowling department looks fiery as they have added Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madhusudanka and Nuwan Thushara with slinging action into their pace bowling department. Inclusion of Mohmmad Nabi and Shreyas Gopal will add a great value to the spin department. The most awaited comeback of Jasprit Bumrah, who missed the entire last season due to injury will make sure Mumbai Indians have all bases covered in the bowling department.
The batting department of Mumbai Indians is as usual their strongest zone. Hardik Pandya has come as like to like replacement for Cameron Green who was traded to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their batting line up has one of the strongest cores of Indian players having Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Surya Kumar Yadav, Tilak Verma and Nehal Wadhera. Along with this, the inclusion of Mohammad Nabi and Romario Shepherd will strengthen their lower order with Tim David and Dewald Brevis already being part of the team.
Mumbai Indians predicted playing 11 for IPL 2024:
Rohit Sharma
Ishan Kishan (WK)
Suryakumar Yadav
Tilak Varma
Hardik Pandya (C)
Tim David ✈️
Mohammad Nabi/ Romario Shepherd ✈️
Piyush Chawla/ Shreyas Gopal
Gerald Coetzee ✈️
Jasprit Bumrah
Luke Wood✈️
Impact player: Nehal Wadhera
Mumbai Indians have got one of the strongest squads on paper but the biggest challenge for their management will be how they handle the chaos of captaincy shift within their team environment as most of their key players had a great experience of playing under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. Hardik Pandya has a huge shoe to fill in. However, since he has grown up in the setup of Mumbai Indians it shouldn't be too difficult for him to control the team environment. If Mumbai Indians find the correct formula for using one of either Romario Shepherd or Mohammad Nabi according to different venues, they are all set for having another blockbuster season.
Mumbai Indians squad for IPL 2024:
Hardik Pandya (Traded from GT), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Luke Wood (Replacement of Jason Behrendroff), Romario Shepherd (Traded from LSG), Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madhushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Namandhir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma
