Former Indian cricketer and well-known commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar, wasn’t much pleased with the Mumbai Indians (MI) picks at the recently concluded Indian Premier League-IPL 2022 mega auction.
He was particularly perplexed as to why the MI spent INR 23 crores on just two players, Ishan Kishan and Jofra Archer, and referred to it as a "compromise," claiming that the MI made numerous concessions to secure the duo's services at the IPL 2022 auction.
Notably, MI picked up the young wicketkeeper-batter Ishan for a whopping Rs 15.25 crores, while England’s pace sensation Archer for Rs 8 crores and Manjrekar said the franchise just has some big names in its ranks but doesn’t look like a star-studded Mumbai Indians team.
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Manjrekar said on Star Sports' show 'Cricket Live – IPL Auction Special: “Jofra Archer is just a brilliantly gifted bowler and he's done it in the IPL before. He's your 'super over' bowler, in fact, there might be a fight between the two as to who will bowl the super over.”
He continued, “But the mystery has been unraveled - why was Mumbai Indians so cautious and bailing out - because 23 crores were spent on two players - Ishan Kishan and Jofra Archer. Jofra Archer was a real suspect, who would've thought who would think like this.
That this is a guy who's not available this season, but they knew if we bid for him now, you can get him at a very cheap price for 2023 and 2024 but half the purse spent on two players and hence the caution with the others.”
He concluded, “As a result, we are not looking at a star-studded Mumbai Indians team, normally you see some big names in that team, but they made a lot of compromises to get Ishan and Jofra.”
Notably, MI also spent Rs 2.6 crores to acquire the services of the Australia all-rounder Daniel Sams after a fierce bidding war with Lucknow Super Giants at the IPL 2022 auction.
(With ANI Inputs)
