IPL 2021: Mumbai Indians squad review

Mumbai Indians are the most successful franchise in IPL history by quite some margin. The defending champions will be aiming to add one more to the 5 IPL trophies in their trophy cabinet.

Their success has been strongly credited to their planned approach both on the field and during the off-season. Their mentorship of young players has given us gems like Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ambati Rayudu and Ishan Kishan. They have a few young guns this year too in the form of Arjun Tendulkar, Anmolpreet Singh, Mohsin Khan and Anukul Roy to nurture.

The core group of Mumbai Indians has remained fairly the same for a long time, which is important to gel together as a team. We will have a department-wise look at the team to see their strengths and weaknesses:

Mumbai Indians batting lineup: A nightmare for bowling units

Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock will open the batting for Mumbai Indians in this year's IPL. As seen in the past, Rohit tries to play the role of an anchor in a batting lineup full of stars. A big hitter himself, the captain tries to let the other batsmen play attacking shots till the situation demands. Quinton de Kock starts as the aggressor and tries to make use of powerplays. Chris Lynn will provide an alternative in case the team wants to alter the combination.

Suryakumar Yadav has been a perfect T20 number 3 for Mumbai Indians who can both play a mature partnership-building innings or a quickfire knock according to the match scenario.

Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya work nicely in the middle order, taking the team across the finish. The biggest threat to the opponents is that this middle order does not have a fixed pattern as any batsman can bat at any order. This catches the teams off-guard.

The sharpness in the bowling department

Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah are the spearhead fast bowlers for the team. The team will certainly miss the services of Sri Lankan legend Lasith Malinga this season. The two frontline fast bowlers are assisted by Dhawal Kulkarni. This season the young and dynamic talents Arjun Tendulkar and Marco Jensen join the Mumbai Indians setup. All-rounders James Neesham and Nathan Coulter Nile can also provide the team with depth in both bowling and batting.