The IPL 2023 Mini auction is over and the teams have been built. Mumbai Indians are one of the franchises who will be happy with the team that they have created as they had some pretty impressive buys in the Mini auction this year. After their disaster class performance last season in IPL 2022, this is probably what they required the most and Rohit Sharma and Co. will now look to extend their legacy in the Indian Premier League by registering another superb season this year.
However, former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan has some complaints about the Mumbai Indians squad. He has rated their squad only 3.5-4 out of 5 as he thinks that MI still lack some things. According to him, the biggest shortcoming of this squad is the unavailability of a good No.7.
Pathan praised the buy of Cameron Green. He also said that the purchase of Piyush Chawla completes their bowling lineup. They already have the deadly duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer and if they are fit enough, MI might as well have the strongest bowling lineup in the tournament. However Irfan Pathan thinks that MI are short of a player if you try to build their starting XI.
He suggested that MI need a gamechanger in that position and they might go for an extra bowler or an extra batsman. The No. 7 position is pretty important in T20, particularly in the Indian Premier League because finishers are very important in this dynamic format. If that’s not the case, the middle order batters will have to take the extra pressure of scoring runs and also stay longer to play the death overs and that is never a dependable strategy. However, Mumbai’s tailenders, namely Bumrah and Jofra Archer are pretty good with the bat as well and thus they might not feel the immediate urge to panic about this problem.
“Definitely between three-and-a-half to four. Cameron Green was an extremely good buy. I am giving one point less because you will feel one player is missing when you try to make their playing XI,” reasoned Pathan.
“You can also get Cameron Green to open and then Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav – these four are confirmed. Tilak Varma will come at No. 5, Tim David will come at No. 6 but who will be the seventh player? Which other guy will bat here? It seems they missed out slightly there,” he said.
