Hello and welcome to the next IPL preview. This is part of a series of 8 posts looking at all the team playing in the IPL this year trying to look at the weaknesses and strengths in each squad. All the others are on the blog so please go check them out let me know your thoughts. Today we are covering the Mumbai Indians, the holders of the title and the favourites for this years competition. Mumbai are possibly the most successful team in the IPL and have a big reputation to live up to. They are coached by the great Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene and captained by Rohit Sharma.
Mumbai have the largest squad in this years competition so will be interesting to see if the squad is quantity and quality. Overall Mumbai are one of the younger squads in the IPL this year however most of the players are clustered around the peak ages which could be an advantage. Finally in terms of IPL experience it is definitely on the lower end however they do have a couple of players with lots of experience. This seems to be a well structured squad for age and experience so lets look where the money was spent.
Mumbai seems to be another team which has spread its money between batsmen, all rounders and fast bowlers. The big money has been spent on Rohit Sharma the captain and who the pressure will rest on to get them up to the big scores.
Overall the batting line up looks extremely strong with generally high strike rates and a few batsmen able to the play long innings that underpin the big scores. I really like the balance here this is clearly a squad that has been well thought out.
The Mumbai all rounders could be the slight weak spot. They are still generally good however compared to some of the others are maybe lacking in the bowling or batting facet depending on the player.
Finally the bowling attack looks excellent. Two bowlers in the attack able to take wickets and restrict runs which is the perfect combination.
Overall Mumbai is clearly a well balanced and though through squad. The money has been spent well across all departments and I can see why they have the tag as favourites. whether i agree with that though we will have to see what the rest of the teams have to offer.
Sport Data Science 