The Indian Premier League 2021, which is set to display fierce competition between eight power-packed teams, commences in less than two weeks and fans could not be more excited. The IPL player auction, which serves as a pre-event to the league, witnessed equally fierce competition while relying on the deep pockets of the owners. 

While teams like Rajasthan Royals made big statements in the auction by making a record-breaking bid worth INR 16.25 crore on South African player Chris Morris, some teams focused on retaining most of their original and experienced set to power through the season. 

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With Mumbai Indians eyeing their third consecutive win this year, the team management and owners appeared to be hard at work at the auction, making crucial decisions that could either make or break their case in the upcoming season. Mumbai Indians added a total of seven players to their lineup while bringing in Australia’s Nathan Coulter-Nile for INR 5 crore. Moreover, New Zealand’s Adam Milne was rolled in at 3.2 crore. 

Akash Ambani, the owner of the Mumbai Indians franchise, said that the team management was involved in long hours of intense backstage planning in preparation for the auction. 

He said, “We did a lot of planning for this auction. We were on video conference 12 hours a day in the last few days in the build-up to the auction. Every auction requires a lot of hard work. This was a special year where we didn’t do any trades compared to the last few years, so we had to prepare extra hard for that. We believe we have a complete squad”, reported Sportskeeda. 

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The most recent statements came from Parth Jindal, a partial owner of the high-performing Delhi Capitals team after the team’s skipper, Shreyas Iyer, suffered an injury in the recently concluded India-England series. Iyer was taken off the field after he dived in an attempt to restrict a boundary and was later diagnosed with a labrum tear on his left shoulder, according to India Today. 

Jindal wished Iyer a speedy recovery as the player’s participation in the upcoming league came under question. He wrote on Twitter, “Absolutely devastated and gutted for our skipper @ShreyasIyer15 – stay strong captain – hope for a very quick recovery. Have full faith that you will come back even stronger from this. India needs you in the T20 World Cup.”

Also Read: IPL 2021 auction: MS Dhoni’s presence felt with ‘definitely not’ t-shirts

Meanwhile, N Srinivasan, the owner of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, which will be vying to make a comeback to their original track after an underperforming season in 2020, reiterated his faith in the former Indian team skipper and current captain of CSK, MS Dhoni. 

Srinivasan said, “He is a very determined person and that is what we like. One more thing, Cricket is about winning, IPL is about winning but there are also things such as consistency and loyalty and I think that is what oozes out of us,” while further adding that Dhoni had been taking part in regular training to get ready for the upcoming IPL season, reported India Today.