Scott Styris said Mumbai Indians may have to spend the big bucks at the mega auction next year to retain South African young pace sensation Marco Jansen.
Former New Zealand all-rounder has presented an interesting perspective on one of defending champions Mumbai Indians’ newest recruit Marco Jansen. Though the lanky bowler put up an impressive show with the ball on his debut in the IPL 2021 opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore, pocketing 2/28 in 4 overs, Scott Styris believes the move may come back to bite the franchise in the future.
Scott Styris Thinks It’s A Bad Move For Mumbai Indians To Pick Up Marco Jansen As IPL 2022 Will See Mega Auction
Scott Styris, while speaking on Star Sports’ show ‘Cricket Connected’, was of the opinion that MI’s purchase of the South African pace bowler is a “bad move” because other franchises will take notice of him and with a mega auction scheduled to take place next year, defending champions Mumbai Indians could have to shell out a huge sum of money to retain him.
“I think this is a bad move for Mumbai Indians to pick up Marco Jansen right now, because now, as we are doing, we are talking about it, everybody is talking about it. And with the possibility of a major auction next year, then I think Mumbai may have to suddenly pay up big bucks because they are not going to keep him,” said Scott Styris.
Further elaborating on his point, Scott Styris said: “So, I would suggest, to think a little bit long-term, maybe put him on the ice this year and Mumbai Indians could have swept in next year having for a long time like Lasith Malinga. Because I think he has got that skill to be a starting front-line bowler in the IPL for 10 years.”
Parthiv Patel explained that the Mumbai Indians scouting team had done their homework before roping in uncapped South African all-rounder Marco Jansen. He was snapped up by Mumbai Indians at his base price of INR 20 lakh at the IPL 2021 Auction.
Marco Jansen was given an opportunity to bowl at the Indian players in the nets during their South African tour in 2017-18. After Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri saw them, they invited him and his twin brother Duan Jansen, to come and bowl at another practice session.
Marco Jansen made his first-class debut for North West Province in the CSA 3-day Provincial Cup 2018-19. He has played 12 matches and picked up 52 wickets at an average of 20.51 and a brilliant strike rate of 37.8. In List A cricket, he has played 13 matches, picking up 16 wickets.
Scott Styris Thought It Was A Phenomenal Performance From Marco Jansen Who Is Expected To Get Bounce For Tall Height
Cricketer-turned-commentator Scott Styris, however, acknowledged that he was impressed with what he saw from the Proteas bowler. He believes his tall frame, of 6ft 8inch, will make him a very useful bowler in the years to come.
“I thought it was a phenomenal performance. I haven’t seen much of him as well. I asked Parthiv Patel, who has had a little bit of scouting experience with Marco. All around, I thought he is incredibly impressive and the reason for that is not about the simple factor that he gets bounce because he is six foot eight, which is what you expect.
“He touched 143mph, which is a serious pace. He is going to get bounce if he has got pace. And he started, on that pitch, to bowl the slower balls as well,” said Scott Styris on Star Sports’ show ‘Cricket Connected’.
Marco Jansen’s scalps on his IPL debut included Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and Shahbaz Ahmed. Mumbai Indians will next lock horns against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) later on 13th April in a high voltage clash. While MI lost to RCB, KKR won against SRH. All the 4 matches played so far have seen all the 8 teams rising to the occasion and scoring runs above 150.