Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has predicted that Mumbai Indians’ will definitely go after Yuzvendra Chahal in IPL 2025 mega auction. The auction will take place at Jeddah on November 24 and 25 as 1574 players (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have registered.
Meanwhile, Chahal picked 18 wickets in 15 matches for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024 and he played a key role in helping his team qualify for the playoffs. But the leg-spinner was not retained by the inaugural champions. Chahal is also the highest wicket-taker in IPL history with 205 wickets in 160 matches.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians will look to strengthen their spin department after releasing veteran spinner Piyush Chawla. MI have decided to retain captain Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Tilak Varma ahead of the auction.
“Their batting has become strong once again. The problem is that they have only one bowler, who is a four-over bank, but you need more bowlers. Bowling let them down last time as well. They used to score runs, 225 to 250, but used to concede that many as well,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“So they had so much overdependence on the batting to fire and scoring 20-40 runs above par every time is a bit too much. They might have an entire Indian batting lineup and an overseas bowling lineup, with a couple of Indian spinners. They will definitely go after Yuzi Chahal. I don’t know whether they will get him or not. They might want to keep Washington Sundar,” Chopra added.
Meanwhile, the renowned commentator feels the five-time champions will target wicket-keeper bats like Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock, Jitesh Sharma and Phil Salt.
“They will also need a wicketkeeper-batter. They will go for Ishan Kishan for sure but won’t get him. So they might go towards Quinton de Kock because they need a keeper-batter. They might find Jitesh Sharma. They will definitely go towards Phil Salt because they need an opener keeper-batter. Jitesh doesn’t fit that slot but then he is also an Indian,” he said.
Chopra reckons MI might target overseas bowlers to company Jasprit Bumrah.
“So an entire overseas bowling contingent and I have a feeling that overseas bowlers aren’t going to earn too much this time. They (MI) are ready for the auction. They have five excellent players with them. They will have to shop properly for the bowlers this time,” Chopra observed.
MI finished the previous season as the cellar-dwellers with only four wins in 14 games and they will want to turn the tables in the next edition of the TATA IPL.
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