Defending champions,
back-to-back champions, record champions. Mumbai Indians are all that and once
again the team to team to beat as the Indian Premier League (IPL) gears up for
a 14th edition, starting April 9, when the Rohit Sharma-led side will take on Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

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The ‘Hitman’, the most successful captain and player in the tournament’s history,
will be looking to lead the side to the league’s first-ever three peat as their
world class squad boasts of some of the most in-form players in the game right
now, apart from a frightening depth.

As competitive
as IPL 2020 was, in hindsight, it feels like Mumbai breezed to victory in the
UAE. After a customary stuttering start, losing two of their first three matches,
Mumbai went on to finish on top of the table in the group stage, with the
highest net run rate of all, and crushed the Delhi Capitals in both the first qualifier
and the final.  

There were
no Purple or Orange cap winners from the team as the sum of the whole counts
more than the individual for MI. That is evident in the fact that three Mumbai batters
are among the top ten run scorers as well as two pacers among the top three
wicket-takers.

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Rohit
Sharma and Quinton de Kock make for a formidable opening pair and they are backed
up by a imposing line up of power-hitters in the top and middle order.

Ishan
Kishan, the breakthrough star of the season who finished as the side’s leading
run scorer and with the highest number of sixes in the tournament, will be keen
to build upon his form in the recent T20I series against England, where he
scored a fifty on his debut.

Then there
is Suryakumar Yadav, another who notched a fifty on his India bow in the England
T20Is, Kieron Pollard, who just became the third player to hit six sixes in an over
in international cricket, and the Pandya brothers, both of whom have reveled in
the limited overs format games against England.

Most of Mumbai’s
buys this auction were to reinforce their bowling unit, acquiring New Zealand pacer
Adam Milne for Rs 3.2 crores along with veteran leggie Piyush Chawla for Rs 2.4 crores among the major buys.

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They will be
led by Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and Trent Boult’s seam
prowess will continue being a threat for opening batsmen in the powerplay overs.

Skipper Rohit will also
have Kiwi all-rounder James Neesham along with the son of god Arjun Tendulkar to
call upon this season.

Mumbai
Indians full squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock, Aditya Tare, Saurabh
Tiwary, Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Trent Boult, Jayant Yadav, Suryakumar
Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Chris Lynn, Rahul Chahar, Hardik Pandya,
Anmolpreet Singh, Mohsin Khan, Anukul Roy, Ishan Kishan, Adam Milne, Nathan
Coulter-Nile, Marco Jansen James Neesham, Arjun Tendulkar, Yudhvir Charak.