IPL 2024: Mumbai Indians sign Harvik Desai as replacement for Vishnu Vinod

Mumbai Indians were handed a huge blow after Vishnu Vinod, one of the backup wicketkeepers of their squadron for the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League, suffered an injury. However, the franchise has taken a quick and necessary step to replace the stumper-batter with Harvik Desai, a like-for-like replacement. Notably, Desai represents Saurashtra in the Indian domestic circuit and was also a part of the 2018 U-19 World Cup winning squad for India.

It is understood that the injured Vinod has been ruled out of the remainder of the seventeenth edition of the coveted tournament. The ouster for Vinod was affected by a severe injury to his forearm, disallowing him to be able to take the field if the need be.

Also Read: IPL 2024: Sunrisers Hyderabad name Vijaykanth Viyaskanth as Wanindu Hasaranga's replacement

Who is Harvik Desai?

The latest entrant in the MI squad, Harvik, hails from Bhavnagar, Gujarat and has been a regular feature in the Saurashtra squad ever since making his domestic debut across all three formats during the 2018-19 edition. Touted as one of the sought-after wicketkeeping talents in the country, Harvik can make handsome contributions with the bat as well.

Interestingly, the 24-year-old Harvik has a century in all three formats of the game and was a member of the India U19 team that won the World Cup in 2018. Under the leadership of Prithvi Shaw, Desai played four innings, aggregating 157 runs at an average of 72.68. He scored a fifty in India's successful campaign, and remained unbeaten on 47 in the summit clash against the mighty Australian squad led by Jason Sangha.

In a total of 27 T20s played so far, Harvik has amassed 691 runs at an average in excess of 30. His strike-rate of 134.17 isn't to be ignored as well. The Saurashtra cricketer has also a century and four fifties to his name in the T20 circuit, 104* being his highest score. His first-class records, on the other hand, are also impressive with 2658 runs in 40 red-ball encounters so far.

Take a look at some stroke-making abilities of Harvik Desai

Currently, Ishan Kishan is handling the duty behind the wickets for the five-time champion franchise. The southpaw from Bihar is also seen opening the innings alongside explosive opener Rohit Sharma. However, in Kishan's absence, the Hardik Pandya's led side may hand over the keeping duties to Harvik to do the glovework.