Marco Jansen departs South Africa to join Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2021

Marco Jansen recently took to Instagram stories to announce that he is traveling to India from South Africa to join his Mumbai Indians teammates ahead of IPL 2021.

The 20-year-old South African pacer was bought by Mumbai Indians at his base price of ₹20 lakh at the IPL 2021 Auction.

Marco Jansen's Instagram story (Screen Capture)

Marco Jansen, a left-arm fast bowler and a handy lower-order batsman, is yet to make his international debut. But the speedster has played 12 first-class matches and 13 List A games, in addition to featuring in four T20s.

Jansen said after the IPL 2021 Auction:

"I actually can’t believe it, if you think of it like that. To be honest, three years ago my brother and I were talking about playing for the varsity first team and never even thought about IPL. So to be where I am today, I’m very blessed and honored. It’s really a privilege."

We were surprised to see Marco Jansen go for such a low price: Zaheer Khan

"It's not every day that a youngster who is 20-years-old gets picked in the IPL." 🙌📰 Marco Jansen talks about his cricketing journey and more ⬇️#OneFamily #MumbaiIndianshttps://t.co/EMoJxp49Zo

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 25, 2021

Director of Cricket Operations of Mumbai Indians, Zaheer Khan rated the young South African bowler very highly during his interaction with MI owner Akash Ambani on YouTube.

The former Indian pacer revealed that he was surprised that no other IPL team decided to bid for the 20-year-old.

The youngster Marco (Jansen) has been a very highly rated bowler in South Africa. We were actually surprised to see him go at such a low price. We were expecting some more bidding around him,” Zaheer said.

MI owner Akash Ambani then explained that the franchise had been tracking Marco Jansen for the last two years as part of their international talent scout program.

"We had a word with Quinny (Quinton de Kock) after Marco's Test squad selection. He said, 'you have to go for him, he's completely ready now,'" Akash Ambani said on YouTube.

Get the list of other IPL team owners here.

Marco Jansen will certainly be a key player for the Mumbai Indians going forward. The tall left-arm pacer has the ability to swing the new ball and can also make handy contributions with the bat lower down the order.

Marco Jansen , Jamieson , Jhye - remember these names 🤪😜

— Tanmoy Chakraborty (@Tanmoycv01) March 23, 2021