The magnitude of the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in 2018 was very close to the inaugural auction that the teams participated in, before the first edition in 2008. Nearly 600 players were slotted to go under the hammer. The auction was spread across two days, and tensions within the hall reached fever-pitch on several occasions with eight teams going head-to-head against each other to buy players and try to build a strong squad for the eleventh edition of the Vivo IPL.

MI ended up buying the full quota of 25 players, purchasing six players on Day 1 of the auction and 16 on Day 2. Our think tank took some strong decisions in quick time to build a formidable squad. Mrs. Nita Ambani, Akash Ambani & our head coach, Mahela Jayawardene took to Facebook LIVE to interact with the Paltan and answer some of the questions around the auction.

We had a task of maintaining our core players and build a team around it. We managed to pull this off and build a strong squad around our 5 core players. Mrs. Nita Ambani, who has closely watched the team grow and bond along with the three retained players, had all the answers for questions regarding retention of players. “I think for Mumbai Indians, it has always been important to maintain the core team. So, we retained Hardik, Rohit and Bumrah. I think that helps in the bonding of the team.” Mrs. Ambani also emphasized on the ‘family feeling’ that the core players bring to the team. “We’ve seen Mumbai Indians winning three championships because we believe that Mumbai Indians is a family, and we operate like a family. We are emotionally involved. So, having these three boys and maintaining a core team always helps in winning championships.”

Akash Ambani was satisfied with how the auction panned out and the kind of squad we have at the end of it. He pin-pointed on the value that each of the 25 players can bring to the team. “The first eleven buys were probably the eleven players that we wanted to play in our playing eleven, and then from there we discussed that an IPL is not won by eleven players, it’s won by a whole squad.”

This auction was a massive one for all teams. Considering the intensity and the duration of the auction, Mrs. Ambani shed light on how she and the think tank tackled the toughness of the auction this time around. “I think all big auctions are difficult, they are mentally exhaustive and emotionally draining also. You may have had many strategies but there will always be surprises in the auction. You need to take on-spot decisions.” She also expressed her feelings on losing out on some of our former players. “Sometimes, there are decisions that emotionally don’t go your way, when you lose out on players like Bhajji and Rayudu who’ve been with us, but the dynamics of the auction change all the time and you need to be ready and make spot decisions.”

During the auction, we had to keep an eye on our purse at the same time. Akash Ambani was keen on getting some of the former guys back, but everything doesn’t go your way. “We would’ve done the same (gone hard for Buttler and Shaw). It’s unfortunate that this auction is decided by the players that come out in different sets. They’re definitely going to be great players for whichever franchise they’re going to play for. Prithvi is one for the future for sure and Jos is an outstanding player and just like them, we’re very, very sad that we lost out on some of our best experienced players like Bhajji, Rayudu and Karn Sharma.” Mrs. Ambani was quick to point out that Parthiv was also someone we would have loved to have back.

Mahela Jayawardene added to the Ambanis’ points on why we couldn’t go for Buttler, who Mahela backed a lot in the previous season. “With Jos, I think it was a tough call because of his availability next year, and as well as from a price point. I think we knew that we needed to maintain a certain plan, execute a certain plan. Some of the prices that were going were absolutely insane.”

It was always the plan to use the two Right-to-Match cards for Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya. Akash Ambani was honest about the nerves he tackled and was relieved to have Pollard back in the team. “I was very nervous, I thought maybe one of them will slip because you never know the dynamics of an auction. But, I think we are incredibly happy and as soon as we got Polly in the first set out of the auction, it really lightened our mood for the whole auction because it would’ve been a tough auction if we didn’t have Pollard in our bag. I think we would all agree.”

While we lost out on some of our members from 2017, we managed to buy some local names. Akash explained the thinking and the mind-set behind this move. “I think Mumbai players are special! Over the last few years, we’ve not got a lot of Mumbai players in our squad. The players for Mumbai take pride in playing for Mumbai Indians. It’s their home city, they represent Mumbai for 8 months of the year and I’m sure that if most of them had a choice, they would want to represent Mumbai. I’m sure that they are very, very happy to be back and for us, it’s great because they’ll always have the pride to play for their home city.”

Largely positive, a little emotional but entirely successful; this was the precise outcome when it came down to the preparation and execution of this auction. Our squad surely looks like a side capable enough to make our Paltan happy.