IPL 2019: What the teams are looking for in the auction

Mumbai Indians (MI)

3-time champions Mumbai Indians missed the mark last year by finishing 5th. Mumbai has been playing with some big names in their roster, for a number of years. And somehow, they manage to add a couple more in every auction.

Names like Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard, and the Pandya brothers are names that are associated with MI for more than 4 years now. Last year, Mumbai went into the auction with 3 players retained. They had decided to build a team around their captain Rohit Sharma, pacer Bumrah, and their all-rounder Hardik Pandya. With Pollard and Krunal Pandya being their right-to-match cards, the core of the Mumbai franchise was back in the dug-out.

Mumbai will be willing to continue winning the title on alternate years

The team owned by the richest family in the country, went on to pick a hard-hitting opener, Evin Lewis and brought in Ishan Kishan as their keeper. Players like JP Duminy, Mustafizur Rahman, Ben Cutting, and Pat Cummins only added to the star power of the team.

The boys in blue and golden have won the IPL on alternate occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2017. Whether they will continue this pattern and win again this time, depends largely on how they perform at the auction.

Mumbai have released Mustafizur, Duminy and Cummins from their squad. This makes their bowling look a little weak. However, they have their 20 overs covered in Bumrah, Adam Milne, Pandya brothers and McClenaghan.

Even after these 20 overs, Mumbai is still left with Jason Behrendorff, Ben Cutting, Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar in the reserves. So, overall, fast bowling does not look like a problem for Mumbai.

However, they would like to include a known spinner in their side, probably a leg-break bowler. With the bowling sorted, it was the batting collapses that hurt Mumbai last season. To improve on that front, Mumbai have brought in Quinton de Kock from RCB.

However, Mumbai will need to strengthen its middle order. With a good quality middle order batsman and a leg-spinner added to the roster, Mumbai can well continue with their pattern of bringing home the trophy every alternate year.