Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), hailed as the biggest franchise T20 cricket competition in the world, is about five months away from kick-starting. But the build-up to the IPL 2024 has well and truly begun in the past few days with the news about the player auction, likely to be held between December 15 to 19 in Dubai, UAE, came out.
All the 10 IPL franchises will have the opportunity to submit the list of players they are going to either retain or release until November 15, with an eye to improve their squad for the 2024 season, while the trade window is currently open too. Mumbai Indians, the five-time IPL champions, who haven’t won the title in the last three seasons, will be looking to bolster their squad to bring home the trophy once again.
Notably, in the build-up to the IPL 2022 season, the introduction of Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants meant that the other teams in the league had to release a plethora of players for the mega auction, which impacted Mumbai Indians a lot more than others. MI had to let go of some of the top cricketers from their squad, which led to their performances drop substantially in 2022, and they haven’t been able to reach their full potential since then.
With that, SportsTiger looks at three former players Mumbai Indians may look to bring back for IPL 2024.
Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock, the two-time IPL winner with Mumbai Indians, was let go by the franchise, for the last mega auction preceding the 2022 season of the tournament. In his three seasons with MI from 2019 to 2021, the South African played 43 IPL matches, putting together stellar campaigns with bat in hand and behind the stumps, scoring 1329 runs, which included 10 fifties.
The 30-year-old had a stellar IPL season with Lucknow Super Giants in the 2022, but he was literally non-existent in 2023 due to fitness and tactical reasons, which could hand Mumbai Indians the opportunity to bring him back to the fold once more, if he becomes available.