Mumbai Indians came in with the lowest-ever purse by a team in the history of an IPL Auction. At the end of the night, they’ve managed to get the five players they needed, each at their base price. Team Owner, Akash Ambani, in a chat with JioHotstar, opened up on the challenges of planning with just 2.75crore INR to work with.

“It was a new experience for us after 18 auctions,” he said. “This was the lowest-ever purse any team has ever gone in with. We have always been very active in the trade market and we got the options we were looking for. You have to see the gaps you wanted to fill. We were very, very happy with the squad we bought in the big auction. Then following it up with three trades we did was really helpful for us to have clarity on the roles we wanted each player to play. It was a new experience. Fortunately until now, we’ve got all our players at base price. It’s good to get some uncapped players at 30 lakhs. Definitely a new experience in terms of planning.”

The first highlight came early in the day, in the first set itself when Cameron Green’s name came out of the sack. Mumbai Indians had the paddle up first for his base price of INR 2 crore, bailing out eventually with the bids going beyond the in-hand purse. In the 2023 Auction, MI had bid a record 17.5cr INR for the then 23-year-old Aussie. It was his first IPL home. And this was our way of showing our love.  

“We are always serious when we raise the paddle. But it’s bit of a homage too, his first IPL team was Mumbai Indians and we think he is a very, very good player and an even better person. So just a little homage to Cam Green. We knew he was out of our purse for this auction. But this was just to tell him that we value him and he will be among our thoughts. Whenever he is in the auction, our paddle will go up for him,” he said.

The next big moment was the homecoming of Quinton de Kock, a certified Blue and Gold legend, someone who’s played a huge role in Mumbai Indians’ title wins of 2019 and 2020, while forming a dangerous opening stand with Rohit Sharma. His love affair with the Wankhede is well documented.

“We’ve bid for Quinny (Quinton) in every Auction that he has been available in. Even last year we were bidding against KKR for him. There is a real chemistry between Rohit and Quinny. They were the championship winning opening pair for us. Yes, it’s been five years, which is what I told them when I spoke to both of them. But, from my point of view, he is still very, very experienced and a very good IPL performer.

“We think he will be very suited to Wankhede and gives us that option. Not to discount, his relationship with Ryan (Rickelton) was a very big factor. Growing up Ryan idolized Quinton. So he was pushing us in the South Africa Auction as well to open with Quinton. Finally now here they are in the same team.”

A standout feature of MI’s auction, year-on-year, has been the excitement every uncapped buy brings. This year was no different, with the Paltan already buzzing with the four Indian players, Danish Malewar, Mohammad Izhar, Atharva Ankolekar and Mayank Rawat each purchased at their base prices of 30 lakhs INR. Atharva, for instance, already has a history with MI.

“These are all players we have rated for a very long time,” Akash said.

“Danish is someone we’ve rated. Unfortunate that he got an injury this season and not played any of the white ball tournaments. Very, very happy to have him and we rate him very highly as a player. Izhar is the same, a Bihar fast bowler. We like our left-armers at Mumbai. This time we have a little bit of a change. Backing up to Trent Boult are Ashwani (Kumar) and Izhar. We wanted to give that rope to Ashwani because he did really well for us, and now Izhar comes in with the same promise that Ashwani came in with last year. Very happy to secure his services. Net bowler and then attended a couple of trials, so we were very unsure whether we would get him.

“Atharva was with the team in 2020 when we were in the Covid bubble. Local Mumbai boy and this time we thought a little bit, and that’s why Shardul’s trade happened, to bring back some of the players from Mumbai. They are of the age profile that can really have long careers with Mumbai Indians.”

The team might have had the lowest purse in the room, but the one thing that connects every IPL Auction is the hardwork and the preparation that goes in leading up to the event. This year, MI had most bases covered through retentions and trades. It was a different kind of planning, understanding the roles that needed backing up, working with budgets and constraints around that. Planning the MI-way has always been the non-negotiable. 

“We’ve been very focused and keen to not just look at the long-term future of Mumbai Indians but to have immediate success in the following season. For us, we have to understand the kind of squad we are trying to build so that they can all perform for the coming season and also have the potential to excel in future seasons for Mumbai Indians. We walked into this Auction with 20 players. Which role would be the backup role and which one would be the backup minus two role was the kind of planning we had to do.

“The non-negotiable is to have good planning. We pride ourselves on having the right plans and identifying which players we think we could get in our price budgets. That’s the reason we went for all the players we did, because we understood that these were the players we could get. We pride ourselves as a franchise to plan and then the result follows the planning.”