After a forgettable run in the IPL 2022, the five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) are ready to begin their preparations for the next edition of the IPL, starting with a three-week exposure tour to England for their uncapped Indian players in July.
The young Indian players of MI will play at least 10 T20 matches against elite club sides from other counties in the UK, in addition to receiving training at various state-of-the-art cutting-edge facilities.
An IPL insider was quoted as saying to PTI, "NT Tilak Varma, Kumar Kartikeya, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen are some of the players who will get exposure playing against top T20 club sides in trying conditions. Arjun Tendulkar, who is also in the UK and South African youngster Dewald Brevis are also likely to join the touring party."
Former Sri Lankan batting legend Mahela Jayawardene, the head coach of Mumbai Indians, would be in England to monitor the development of the Indian players.
"Look, the Indian domestic season has come to an end. While the top players like skipper Rohit Sharma, and premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be now on the road with the national team, our international stars will also be busy with their respective commitments," said the source.
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"The ones who need to be monitored are our younger crop of players as they won't be having any match practice for three and half months before the next domestic season starts. So effectively, we can't call it a pre-season trip as IPL is still nine months away. But it is trying to monitor the progress of our core group of youngsters going forward," he added.
However, MI doesn't require any approval from the BCCI for this tour unless the team is participating in exhibition matches against other franchises or international T20 teams.
"This trip isn't a commercial one where there will be tickets sold or the match will be broadcast on a particular channel or streamed on some app. Since the trip isn't a revenue generator, we don't need to apply for any permission from BCCI," he informed.
Adding further, he said, "We are only taking those players to UK who are not associated with any national team activities or have been summoned for any of the BCCI conducted camps or playing in any league (like TNPL)."
Players likely to go on the UK trip for Mi:
NT Tilak Varma, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Mayank Markande, Rahul Buddhi, Ramandeep Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Basil Thampi, Murugan Ashwin, Aryan Juyal, Akash Medhwal, Arshad Khan, Arjun Tendulkar, Dewal Brevis (overseas).
(PTI inputs)
