Former India opener Aakash Chopra pointed out that the 5-time champions Mumbai Indians played a wait and watch the game on the first day of the mega auction.
On the first day, they bought only 4 players in form of Ishan Kishan, Basil Thampi, Deward Brevis, and M Ashwin. While the price of Ishan Kishan grabbed all the headlines, they didn’t seem too active on the first day of the auction. The franchise has already retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, and Kieron Pollard.
Speaking to his youtube channel, Aakash Chopra believes that Mumbai Indians left too much to do for the second day as he compared their tactics with MS Dhoni.
“They [Mumbai Indians] just saved money for Ishan and spent them on him, which is fine. But as of now, it seems they are playing like MS Dhoni, that they will take the game till the end and then they will start playing.
“They [Mumbai Indians] just saved money for Ishan and spent them on him, which is fine. But as of now, it seems they are playing like MS Dhoni, that they will take the game till the end and then they will start playing,” Aakash Chopra said.
Chopra further pointed out that barring the bidding of Ishan Kishan, they didn’t look like arriving at the event. Notable that they bought Ishan Kishan for a whopping price of 15.25 Cr. Apart from that, they got Dewald Brevis who was the Player of the Tournament for 3 Crores.
“They have not been able to assemble the bowlers”- Aakash Chopra
“They were on a mission to get Ishan Kishan and they got him. It seemed they had not come to the auction at all but when they came, they shone. They picked Ishan Kishan at such a huge sum,” Chopra observed.
“They were absolutely inactive. They were window shopping while waiting for Ishan Kishan, showed little interest and then opted out. They tried for Quinton de Kock, Rabada and Trent Boult but didn’t buy anyone,” he added.
Chopra suggested that Mumbai Indians need to do lots of shopping on the second day as they don’t have enough bowlers even for the first playing XI.
“It is going to be an interesting day. If we see from the Mumbai Indians’ viewpoint, the first day of the auction was 50-50. But it is not over, till it is. Today is going to be very important. They have not been able to assemble the bowlers,” he concluded.
Also read Sunil Gavaskar Backs ‘Late Bloomer’ Suryakumar Yadav For The Finisher’s Role