After an exhilarating two days of action at the mega auction for the 2022 Tata IPL, MI emerged with one of the strongest squads in chase of a record sixth trophy.

Owner Mrs. Nita Ambani has seen the team grow into the most successful franchise in the IPL and has been part of the journey throughout.

“I am overwhelmed to see this team because Mumbai Indians is very dear to me. My heart swells up with pride to see the stature MI has reached on and off the field. The credit for all this goes to the One Family of MI - the players, the support staff, the fans, the groundsmen - and that is the core of MI. I want to thank everyone who has been a part of it,” stated Mrs. Nita Ambani.

Coming to the mega auction, a familiar name in Ishan Kishan returned to the family while MI fans will no doubt be eagerly waiting for the dream team of Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah to play together.

We had retained our core of captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard and Suryakumar Yadav and owner Akash Ambani revealed that the aim was always to bring back one of the other key players.

“We were all sitting together and breaking our heads when we were making the choice for the fourth retention slot. We put all our efforts to get Ishan back and we are so happy that we did,” said Akash Ambani. “Of course, Hardik (Pandya) is captaining Gujarat now, so good luck to him.”

Mrs. Nita Ambani is also feeling excited for the new season but she did admit it was not easy to part ways with some others, which is the case in a mega auction.

“I must tell you that the big auctions are really very difficult. It’s always difficult to let go of players who are part of the family for so many years. We miss all of them - be it Hardik, Krunal, Quinton de Kock or Trent Boult,” Mrs. Nita Ambani stated.

“Auction dynamics are difficult to predict though. We are very happy with the squad and we will try our best to entertain the fans - they are our heartbeat, our 12th man. MI always have a short-term goal and a long-term vision, so we buy some players with that in mind,” she added.

One example of that vision is Rohit Sharma, who first took up captaincy of MI in 2013, leading the team to the first title.

“It has been wonderful to see Rohit Sharma grow into the role of a captain and now he has also become the captain of India! It means so much to see him on the global stage,” exclaimed Mrs. Nita Ambani.

Head coach Mahela Jayawardene also stressed on the importance of building a team for a particular cycle and not just one season.

“We created that combination of Bumrah and Boult for the last couple of years. However, players coming and going is part and parcel of the IPL, some other teams need marquee bowlers as well. We discussed that it is always important to look at a cycle and not just the year that we are supposed to play in. It is tough to let go of a great combination like Boult and Bumrah but it gives us an opportunity to create another one going forward and hopefully, it will be just as successful,” explained Mahela.

So that was the approach our think tank went with for the mega auction. We hope you are happy with the squad, Paltan and do continue to cheer hard for all our new players and give them a grand welcome to our own One Family!