The former Sri Lanka batsman spoke about the ‘wealth of experience’ that the Caribbean left-handed batsman has brought to the table. He then talked about the local experience of all-rounder Shardul. Finally, the veteran batsman pointed out the ‘warrior’ presence of the leg-turning Markande.
“They bring a wealth of experience; you need a group of guys who can handle that pressure. Sherfane brings a lot of experience, he has been around for a while and was with us many years ago. Shardul is another such player, with so much experience. He brings that experience factor, and a local boy from Mumbai and his experience of playing in Wankhede will matter. Mayank has been a warrior. When he was with us he was brilliant as part of a championship-winning team. We’ve been watching him for a while.” We will know exactly which players we want when we participate in the auction,” Jayawardene said in an official MI statement.
Jayawardane, who played six seasons of IPL while representing three teams, then went on to highlight the core of MI and how the management has tried their best to stay consistent with the way they build their team. He concluded by stating the think tank’s priorities.
“Consistency is the key and we have built our team around a core group of players and they are still there. They are very hungry for success. Rohit, Surya, Jasprit, Hardik, Tilak, if we put that in that pool. Obviously we are bringing Trent back in the auction from last season. We have players with good international experience and an international captain like Mitch Santner and Jacksy (Will Jacks. I’ve always said I take one game at a time and just focus on the present. Our focus has always been to stay in the present and create that value chain,” he added.
MI have released nine players of which even Arjun Tendulkar is a part. The bowling all-rounder was traded to Lucknow Super Giants for his price of INR 30 lakh in 2025. The five-time champions have five available slots that they can utilize with a residual amount of INR 2.75 crore. The mini-auction will probably take place next month around December 16th.
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