IPL 2021: Rating the bench strength of each team

Mumbai Indians (8.5/10)

Probable Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Quinton De Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Piyush Chawla, Trent Boult, Nathan Coulter Nile, Jasprit Bumrah.

Major Bench Strength Players: Aditya Tare, Anukul Roy, Chris Lynn, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jayant Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Marco Jansen.

Despite having the tournament’s best possible team, the MI camp is still filled with some quality backups and reserves. In the batting, first, there’s a like-to-like replacement available for Quinton De Kock in the form Chris Lynn or even Jimmy Neesham can also be tried. Also, the presence of Aditya Tare and Saurabh Tiwary surely means two potential backups for Ishan Kishan and Sky Yadav. For Kieron Pollard, mainly Jimmy Neesham can be the eventual cover.

To avoid the woes regarding their two overseas pace strategy, there are some feasible back-ups in the form of Adam Milne and the new rookie Marco Jansen. To give sufficient breaks to both Bumrah and Boult, someone like a Dhawal Kulkarni might then bag some games. Also, since MI will be initially playing a lot in Chennai, apart from Piyush Chawla and Rahul Chahar, there are some reasonable reserves available in the form of Anukul Roy and Jayant Yadav.

All in all, because of the exceeding stature of their frontline players, the MI team might not have a matching backup reserve, but in general, the cover players do look feasible ones to help MI win their sixth IPL glory.