Mumbai Indians are the premier team of the IPL; the ultimate combination of financial might, some Bollywood stardust and one of the best leadership groups in franchise cricket. Under Rohit Sharma, Mumbai not only achieved unprecedented success – winning the IPL five times – but also set the template for a successful franchise. However, over the last two seasons, Mumbai have gone off track: after an ordinary 2021, Mumbai finished dead last in 2022.
They no longer have star all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the team, Jofra Archer missed last season while Jasprit Bumrah is out of this term. Still, Mumbai have great pedigree and a strong management structure. They also pay fabulously well. Australian all-rounder Cameron Green is their most expensive player – acquired for a little over $2 million – and has a salary more than star captain Sharma.
5. Suryakumar Yadav – 80m rupees ($960,000)
They say sky’s the limit, but for SKY, there really is no limit. Say hello to the ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year, 2022. In the last few years, he has truly rewritten the white-ball batting book with his there’s-no-way-you-could-have-played-that shots. A Chembur lad, he fine-tuned his skills with the bat while playing for local clubs (Parsi Gymkhana, Dadar Union) before jumping onto the IPL bandwagon. He started at MI in 2011, and even played a key role in us winning the Champions League T20 that year. He moved to the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, where he established himself as a finisher in the side.
In 2018, we brought our prodigal son back home, and since then, the chants of ‘Aapla Dada Surya’ have never stopped. Moving to the top of the batting order, 300-plus runs in every IPL season since then, meant SKY would now be an indispensable team member. His ‘Main hoon na’ celebration on sealing a nerve-wracking chase against RCB with a stunning 79*(43) is etched in gold.
4. Tim David – 82.5m rupees ($1m)
No total’s ever safe, no boundary is ever too big, no bowler is to be pardoned when Tim David’s in the mood. He’s a proper monster with bat in hand; ask our MI Paltan! Singapore-born, Australia-raised, Tim is the son of former Singapore seamer, Rod David. It was in the 2017-18 season of the Big Bash League where his clean ball-striking capabilities first came to the fore.
A call up to represent the Singapore national side soon followed, where he emerged as the leading run-scorer with 369 runs in five matches in the World Cup Challenge List A tournament.
3. Ishan Kishan – 152.5m rupees ($1.8m)
Our pocket dynamite! Whether it be his four consecutive sixes at the Eden gardens in 2019, or his stunning 99 in Dubai in 2020, or his dancing reels, or that moment when he froze in front of the great Sachin Tendulkar, Ishan Kishan is the perfect entertainer, on and off the ground.
India’s under-19 skipper in the 2016, he was first signed up by the Gujarat Lions, where he impressed immediately with 277 runs at a strike rate of 134.46 in the 2017 season. A keeper-batter, we snapped him up in 2018 as a 19-year-old, and in the 2020 season – with 516 runs at an average 33 – was crucial in our 2020 title triumph. In 2022, he became the most-expensive buy at the mega auction. Who else, but us!
2. Rohit Sharma – 160m rupees ($1.9m)
- Four T20I centuries – the only batter to hold this record
- Three ODI double-centuries – the only batter to hold this record
- Five hundreds in one World Cup edition (2019) – the only batter to hold this record
- Six IPL trophies (Five with MI, one with Deccan Chargers) – the most by any player
- One of Aamchi Mumbai’s favourite sons, Rohit Sharma sprung into focus during the inaugural World T20 in 2007, playing a massive role in India winning the trophy. He was then picked up by the Deccan Chargers, before we snapped him up at the 2011 mega auctions, and thereafter never let him go!
2013 marked another turning point in Ro’s career, with him starting off as a regular white-ball opener for India, and with him becoming the MI skipper. What followed was carnage with the bat, turning him into a modern-day great, and title after title in the IPL
1. Cameron Green – 175 million rupees ($2.1m)
The most-expensive signing in the history of Mumbai Indians! Welcome Cam Green, our latest signing as the post Kieron Pollard era dawns upon us. His cricket roots are in first-class cricket, boasting of a solid technique with the bat, and it was through red-ball cricket that he first rose to prominence. In 2022 though, a callup to open the innings for the Aussies opened up his game, and brought out a seriously destructive side to his batting.
With two T20I half-centuries under his belt, both coming against India in India, and a century in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy, we are stoked to see how Green can transfigure this red-hot form into the IPL