Indian Premier League (IPL) record champions Mumbai Indians made a resounding comeback in the ongoing season to qualify for the playoffs after finishing with a wooden spoon in the previous edition. In a challenging year for the Mumbai Indians that saw them lose their fast bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for the entire season due to an injury, some individual performances from young talents bought at the IPL 2023 auction, and their core players helped their cause.
Mumbai Indians used their IPL 2023 mini-auction purse strategically to fetch the services of veteran spinner Piyush Chawla at a base price of INR 50,00,000. This was a steal deal for the franchise as Chawla rose up to the occasion, picking up 21 wickets in 15 matches to become the highest-wicket taker for Mumbai Indians in the ongoing season. He has a per-match fee of INR 357,142, and the value of each of his 21 wickets so far is INR 255,102.
The franchise made another interesting investment in rookie medium pacer Akash Madhwal. The Roorkie native, who played only tennis ball cricket till the age of 2014, became a familiar name in the Indian household with his career-best figures in IPL of 5/5 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Eliminator. He repaid the faith shown in him by the Mumbai Indians management and helped them enter Qualifier 2 against Gujarat Titans. The 29-year-old was under the Mumbai Indians’ radar ahead of the auction. He was bought for his base price of INR 20,00,000. The medium pacer delivered for the franchise, picking up 13 wickets from seven matches, and has become a lethal weapon towards the business end of the league. Each of his 13 wickets is valued at INR 164,835.
Meanwhile, the onus of playing match-winning knocks for Mumbai Indians was on Suryakumar Yadav. The specialist T20 batter has been consistent for the franchise after rejoining them ahead of the 2018 season for a prize money of INR 3,20,00,000. His stakes increased in recent times for the franchise with a retention fee of INR 8,00,00,000 from the 2022 season. However, there were doubts about his form ahead of the season, as he failed to get off the mark against Australia in three consecutive One-Day Internationals (ODIs). But the prolific Mumbai batter proved that the T20 format is where he rightly belongs by finding his feet and accumulating 544 runs in 15 matches at a staggering strike rate of 183.78. This included one century and four fifties, with the help of 58 boundaries and 26 sixes. The value of each of his sixes in the ongoing season is INR 30,76,923.
