Mumbai Indians might not have been one of the best teams in IPL 2016, even failing to qualify for the Playoffs with a fifth place finish, but they retained 20 players from their squad ahead of IPL 2017. Retaining such number of players show that the management has good faith in their existing squad for the upcoming edition of the annual T20 carnival.
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One look at their squad and it seems to be finely balanced with the right mix of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders. However, with the IPL 2017 auction coming up on Monday (Feb 20), the Mumbai Indians will hope to buy some players and strengthen their squad.
Mumbai Indians already have 20 players in their squad and with a maximum of 27 cricketers allowed per team, they can only buy seven in the auction. One is not sure if the franchise will spend on seven players, but they will surely add some in departments that need to be strengthened.
They have Rs 11.55 crore in their purse for the auction, which is lowest among all the teams. Hence, they should be careful on the players they want and not spend on unrequired resources.
However, one of their major priorities should be to get an opener. Last season, they used Lendl Simmons, who was injured midway and replaced by Martin Guptill. Parthiv Patel also partnered Rohit Sharma in the opening slot, but there was not much glory in that opening slot.
Though Simmons could be the first choice opener from the current squad to partner Rohit Sharma, there is a serious need for an upgrade and there are some good choices available for Mumbai Indians. Jason Roy, who has a base price of Rs 100 lakh, could be a great addition as the right-hander has proved his credentials as a wonderful opener, who loves to take on bowlers.
There will be lot of competition for the Englishman and his price could shoot up tremendously, and with Mumbai Indians not having much money at their disposal, they could be out of the race if there is a bidding war.
In that scenario, they also have the option of Afghanistani opener Mohammad Shahzad (base rpice of Rs 50 lakh) as he could be a perfect foil to Rohit. There is another advantage of bringing in Shahzad as he also keeps wickets and with the English players set to leave IPL 10 early, he can replace Jos Buttler behind the wickets too.
All in all, Mumbai Indians' top priority should be a solid opener, who can release pressure off skipper Rohit at the top.
Besides an opener, there are other positions too. Mumbai Indians need to invest in an all-rounder. Kieron Pollard will their number one all-rounder, but a player like Thisara Perera can keep Pollard on the edge. If they are looking for an Indian all-rounder, Irfan Pathan could fit the bill as he has a huge IPL experience.
Though Mumbai Indians have spinners including Harbhajan Singh in their line-up, they can also look for spinners like Imran Tahir or Parvez Rasool or may be even Pawan Negi, who has a decent batting skill.
