The IPL 2022 edition is slated to begin from March 26 onwards and the entire tournament will be played across four venues in Maharashtra only. There will be 70 league matches played in Mumbai and Pune.
Wankhede Stadium, DY Patil Stadium, Brabourne Stadium, and MCA Stadium in Pune will host the IPL 2022 league stage with the ten teams being divided into two groups.
Mumbai Indians (MI), the five-time champions are placed in group A with Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, and the new franchise Lucknow Super Giants. MI will face Delhi Capitals in their IPL 2022 opening match on March 27 a the Brabourne Stadium.
The MI contingent had retained four players ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction- Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah. And in the auction, their most expensive buy proved to be Ishan Kishan, who earned an INR 15.25 crore bid from his franchise.
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The Mukesh Ambani-owned franchise surprisingly bought Jofra Archer as well for INR 8 crores, despite the fact that he is not available for the IPL 2022 tournament and they were not eligible for any replacement player for him.
Other important buys by the MI management were Tim David, Daniel Sams, Tymal Mills, Dewald Brevis, Jaydev Unadkat amongst others.
Keeping this in mind, Team COC presents the possible playing XI of the Mumbai Indians for the IPL 2022 edition.
The MI squad for the IPL 2022 doesn’t give the confidence that their previous years' unit gave. In the opening slots, they have Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, who is also expected to keep wickets this year.
In the middle order, MI could slot in Tilak Varma, Dewald Brevis, and Anmolpreet Singh along with Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard. The five-time IPL champions will need to depend on foreign hitters as finishers are expected to be Tim David or Fabien Allen.
The pace bowling attack has the options of Jaydev Unadkat, Basil Thampi, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammad Arshad Khan, apart from Arjun Tendulkar. They also have foreign fast bowlers like Riley Meredith, Daniel Sams, and Tymal Mills to choose from.
The spin department of the MI seems to be their biggest problem with no big-name spinner or experienced tweaker in the squad. They have the options like Mayank Markande, M Ashwin, Sanjay Yadav, and others to choose from.
With the squad they have conjured this season, MI seems to be on the short side when it comes to experience in the bowling unit and shortage of some big-name Indian middle-order batters who can shepherd the youngsters.
COC presents possible playing XI of Mumbai Indians (MI):
Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Fabian Allen, Jaydev Unadkat, M Ashwin, Tymal Mills, Jasprit Bumrah
