Mumbai Indians

 

Team analysis: Mumbai Indians

 

Mumbai Indians is a cricket team in the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Sachin Tendulkar, who is also the Icon Player for the team. The team is coached by Robin Singh and is owned by India’s biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports.

 

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL, and hence won the right to hold the semi-finals and the final in Mumbai. The team was unveiled on the 17th of April, 2008 in Mumbai.

 

During the IPL’s first auction for the year 2010, Mumbai Indians bought West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard for USD 750,000, after a silent tie-breaker with Chennai Super Kings,Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Only three of India’s Under-19 players, priced at Rs. 800,000 each, were eligible to play in the IPL and they were chosen by a draft system. Bangalore picked U-19 captain Ashok Menaria, Deccan went for Harmeet Singh and Mumbai opted for Harshal Patel.

 

The team logo has the Sudarshana Chakra with the team’s name engraved in it. The team’s colour is blue. The team’s jersey is a two-tone blue with three stripes in orange.

 

In 2008, Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan was the brand ambassador of the team.

 

The team uniform didnt change much over the last two years couple except for for the colour shade and additional sponsors. In 2010 a new uniform with golden stripes has come into place.

 

Players’ Profile:

 

Sachin Tendulkar:

 

Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon as well. His batting is based on the purest principles: perfect balance, economy of movement, precision in stroke-making, and that intangible quality given only to geniuses, anticipation. If he doesn’t have a signature stroke – the upright, back-foot punch comes close – it is because he is equally proficient in each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will.

 

Major teams: India, Asia XI, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Yorkshire

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak googly

T20 Record: 27 Matches 830 runs, 69 high score, and 2 wkts

 

 

Dwayne Bravo:

 

Dwayne Bravo is that creature long needed by West Indies, an allrounder. He made his Test debut at Lord’s in July 2004, and took three wickets in the first innings with his medium-paced swingers. He also showed a cool enough temperament to forge a confident start at the crease, displaying a straight bat despite his team’s facing a big England total of 568.

 

He grew as a player in the limited-overs format in the 2006-07 season with a fluent unbeaten 112, his maiden ODI ton, against England in the Champions Trophy and achieved his best career figures, 4 for 39, against India in the last game before the World Cup.

 

Twenty20, though, was less of an issue as he resumed his contract with Mumbai Indians. His impressive Twenty20 skills were on display during the Champions League in India where he was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.

 

Major teams: West Indies, Kent, Mumbai Indians, Trinidad & Tobago, University of West Indies Vice Chancellor’s XI, Victoria

Playing role: All-rounder

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium-fast

T20 Record: 52 Matches 927 runs, 70 high score and 56 wkts

 

Shikar Dhawan:

 

Batting at the crucial no.3 position, he felt almost at home when the IPL came about in 2008 – notching up 340 runs in 14 matches at an average of 38. In the 2009 season, Dhawan was traded to the Mumbai Indians in a direct swap for Ashish Nehra. Following the 2009 IPL season, Dhawan scored heaps of runs in the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia and continued to rise through the ranks of promising young batsmen in the country.

 
Dhawan scored 451 runs for Delhi in the 2009-10 Ranji season at an average of 75, and continued his purple patch with a fighting knock of 70 against the visiting South Africans in February. He also sparkled in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, scoring two match-winning fifties in 5 games.

 
Major teams: India, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils, Delhi Under-16s, Mumbai Indians

Batting style: Left-hand bat

T20s Record: 29 Matches 665 runs, 75* high score and 15 catches

 

Jean Paul Duminy:

 

Jean-Paul Duminy was identified very early on as a potential international player, but having made his ODI debut in 2004, it was another three years before he cemented a regular place in the team. On debut he helped guide South Africa to a successful chase of 414 in Perth with an unbeaten 50, then he followed that with a serene 166 in Melbourne to rescue to his team from the prospect of a huge deficit. Those two innings confirmed him as an integral part of South Africa’s future, and he built on that with impressive performances in the subsequent limited-overs game. His timing was perfect: South Africa clinched the Test and ODI series, and he subsequently earned a whopping US$950,000 annual contract with the IPL’s Mumbai Indians.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Cape Cobras, Devon, Mumbai Indians, South Africa Under-19s, Western Province, Western Province Boland

Batting style: Left-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak

T20s Record: 67 Matches 1720 runs, 99* high score and 20 wkts

 

Dilhara Fernando:

 

When Fernando burst onto the international scene, young and raw, he soon inspired hope that he would be the long-term replacement for Chaminda Vaas as the cutting edge of the pace attack. He has natural pace – six months after his debut he was timed at 91.9 mph in Durban – hits the pitch hard and moves the ball off the seam. During the early years he paid for his inconsistent line and length, but then worked hard with Rumesh Ratnayake in the Fast Bowling Unit and became more reliable.

 

A finger injury had ruled Fernando out of the Sri Lankan squad in recently concluded ODI series in India. However, the strapping quick bowler is fit and raring to go in the forthcoming season of IPL.

 

Major teams: Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Mumbai Indians, Sinhalese Sports Club, Worcestershire

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm fast-medium

T20s Record: 33 Matches 34 runs, 8 catches and 42 wickets

 

Harbhajan Singh:

 

Harbhajan Singh is India’s most successful offspin bowler. His deadliest ball, however, is the one that climbs wickedly from a length, forcing a hurried jab. In March 2001, it proved too much for the all-conquering Australians, as Harbhajan collected 32 wickets in three Tests, including the first Test hat-trick by an Indian, while none of his team-mates managed more than three.

 

His personal rivalry against the Australians has provided him both the highest and the lowest points of his career. Invariably, he has managed to raise his game against them, and been singularly responsible for Ricky Ponting’s low scores on Indian soil – he dismissed him five times under 12 in the 2001 series – and some his punchiest batting performances has come against them too.

 

But in 2008 his confrontation with Andrew Symmonds created one of the ugliest controversies in cricket – he was initially charged with racial insult which was reduced to abuse on appeal. Later that year, he was banned for whole IPL season for slapping Sressanth, his Indian team-mate.

 

Major teams: India, Asia XI, Lancashire, Mumbai Indians, Surrey

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak

T20s Record: 48 Matches 262 runs, 31 high score and 43 wkts

 

Sanath Jayasurya:

 

One of the world’s most uncompromising strikers of the ball, Jayasuriya found belated fame as a pinch-hitter at the 1996 World Cup, and then demonstrated that he was also capable of massive scoring in Tests, eventually becoming Sri Lanka’s highest Test run-scorer. He remains dizzily dangerous, especially on the subcontinent’s slower, less bouncy surfaces. Short in stature and powerfully built, he cuts and pulls with awesome power, and his brutal bat-wielding is at odds with his shy, gentle nature. Wised-up opponents have learned to set traps in the gully and at third man to stem the flow of runs, but on song he can be virtually unstoppable, capable of scoring freely on both sides of the wicket.

 

Major teams: Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Asia XI, Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club, Colombo Cricket Club, Dolphins, Marylebone Cricket Club, Mumbai Indians, Ruhuna, Somerset

Batting style: Left-hand bat

Bowling style: Slow left-arm orthodox

IPL Record: 73 Matches 1767 runs, 114* high score, 13 catches and 56 wkts

 

Zaheer Khan:

 

Zaheer Khan performances at the ICC Knockout Trophy in Kenya in September 2000 announced the arrival of an all-too-rare star in the Indian fast-bowling firmament. He might just as easily have come from the Pakistani pace stable: well-built, quick and unfazed by a batsman’s reputation, Zaheer could move the ball both ways off the wicket and swing the old ball at some pace.

 

Zaheer’s response was to head to Worcestershire and take 78 wickets in the 2006 county season, a performance that earned him a recall for the tour of South Africa. He was the perfect foil for Sreesanth there, and he then regained his status as leader of the pack with a matchwinning display at Trent Bridge, as India won only their fifth Test on English soil.

 

 

Major teams: India, Asia XI, Asia XI, Baroda, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Surrey, Worcestershire

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Left-arm fast-medium

T20s Record: 41 Matches 103 runs, 9 catches and 41 wkts

 

Dhawal Kulkarni:

 

Dhawal Kulkarni, a right-arm medium-pacer, first came into the spotlight after his performances for Mumbai Under-17s in the 2005-06 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Impressive performances at the U-19 state level, including 8 for 47 against Tamil Nadu, saw him book a place on the India U-19 tour of Sri Lanka in 2007. He continued the good work there and was rewarded with a spot in Mumbai’s side for the Ranji one-dayers in 2008 as well as a contract with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. In his first Ranji season, he emerged the tournament’s most successful bowler, taking 42 wickets and invariably providing early breakthroughs for Mumbai, the eventual winners. The dream season continued with his inclusion in the Test squad for the tour of New Zealand in 2009.

Major teams: India A, India Under-19s, Mumbai, Mumbai Cricket Association President’s XI, Mumbai Indians

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium

T20S Record: 23 Matches and 21 wkts

 

Ryan McLaren:

 

Major teams: South Africa, Eagles, Free State, Kent, Mumbai Indians, South Africa Under-19s

Batting style: Left-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium-fast

T20s Record: 70 Matches 521 runs, 46* high score and 59 wkts

 

Lasith Malinga:

 

Lasith Malinga was the surprise selection for Sri Lanka’s tour to Australia in 2004, though he had a fearsome reputation on the domestic circuit. Malinga bowls with a distinctive and explosive round-arm action which generates genuine pace and can disconcert batsmen who struggle to pick up the ball’s trajectory. His development as an all-round bowler was confirmed when he was the leading wicket-taker in the one-day series against England. He continued to impress in the Champions Trophy and on tour in New Zealand – where his yorkers made many batsmen hop around.

 

Major teams: Sri Lanka, BCCSL Academy XI, Galle Cricket Club, Kent, Mumbai Indians, Nondescripts Cricket Club, Ruhuna

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm fast

T20s Record: 47 Matches 64 runs, 14 catches and 55 wkts

 

Ali Murtaza:

 

Major teams: Delhi Giants, ICL India XI, Mumbai Indians, Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Under-14s

Batting style: Left-hand bat

Bowling style: Slow left-arm orthodox

T20s Record: 7 Matches 92 runs, 2 catches and 7 wkts

 

Graham Napier:

 

Major teams: England, Central Districts, England Lions, Essex, Essex Cricket Board, Mumbai Indians, Wellington

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium

T20s Record: 7 Matches 92 runs, 2 catches and 7 wkts

 

Abhishek Nayar:

 

Abhishek Nayar is a useful right-arm medium-pacer who has time and again got Mumbai crucial breaktrhoughs in his young first-class career. He does not quite have the pace to be a regular attacking option, but it’s with his left-hand batting that he becomes a natural selection.

 

Nayar was bought by the lucrative Indian Premier League’s Mumbai franchise in early 2008 and enjoyed regular playing time as the tournament kicked off. In the final of the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy he made a vital 99 that helped set up Mumbai’s 38th triumph and, after being on the fringes of the national side, was selected for ODI squad to tour West Indies in June.

 

Major teams: India, India Green, Mumbai, Mumbai Cricket Association President’s XI, Mumbai Indians

Batting style: Left-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium

T20 Record: 28 Matches 399 runs, 45* high score and 6 wkts

 

 

Kieron Pollard:

 

He bats in the middle order and bowls medium-pace – Kieron Pollard, who represented West Indies in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup, hit the national headlines when he smashed 83 for Trinidad and Tobago in the Stanford 20/20 in August 2006, and then underlined that potential with 126 on his first-class debut five months later.

 

Pollard made his ODI debut for in a World Cup match against South Africa and was then recalled for an ODI series against New Zealand in late 2008. He thrilled Indian audiences during the Champions League Twenty20 in October 2009 and his 18-ball 54 for T&T against New South Wales increased his international demand. Pollard was signed by South Australia shortly after and that was followed by an IPL contract with Mumbai Indians for a massive $750000

 

Major teams: West Indies, Mumbai Indians, South Australia, Stanford Superstars, Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies Under-19s

Playing role: All-rounder

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium-fast

T20s Record: 38 Matches 615 runs, 83 high score, and 27 wkts

 

Rahul Shukla:

 

Major teams: Jharkhand, Mumbai Indians

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium

T20 Record: 1 Matches 1 catch, and 4 wkt

 

Aditya Tare:

 

Major teams: Indian Oil Corporation XI, Mumbai Cricket Association President’s XI, Mumbai Indians, Mumbai Under-19s

Playing role: Wicketkeeper

Batting style: Right-hand bat

Fielding position: Wicketkeeper

T20 Record: 6 Matches 114 runs, and 2 catches

 

Saurabh Tiwary:

 

Saurabh Tiwary is a left-hand batsman who began playing cricket at the age of 11. He represented his state Jharkhand at the Under-14 level before making his first-class debut in the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy. He scored two half-centuries in India’s Under-19 tri-series victory against South Africa and Bangladesh in 2008 and was a member of the squad that won the U-19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008.

Major teams: Bihar, Bihar Under-14s, India Green, India Under-19s, Jharkhand, Mumbai Indians

Batting style: Left-hand bat

T20s Record: 17 Matches 443 runs, 69 high score and 4 catches

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