Top 5 smartest decisions taken in IPL history

The T20 format of the game requires a player to think on his/her feet. The nature of the game is fast and exhilarating, and the players have to be on their toes all the time and think out of the box to achieve success. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a cricketing carnival that keeps the entire country hooked.

There is no doubt that cricket is the biggest form of unity in India, and the IPL has been a massive success. The league that started in 2008, is now into its 14th year, and the aura of the IPL has been growing with every passing year.

During the course of the T20 extravaganza, there have been several moments where the teams and players have thought in an innovative manner. While a few of the decisions couldn’t work out well, some of them turned out to be masterstrokes.

In this article, let us take a look at the top 5 smartest decisions in IPL history:

1. Mumbai Indians buy Jasprit Bumrah for his base price of just INR 10 lakhs

Sometimes, spotting talent early is very important. In the year 2013, the Mumbai Indians (MI) side spotted a 19-year-old pacer with an unconventional bowling action. They immediately bought him ahead of the 2013 IPL edition for his base price of just INR 10 lakhs.

And, more than 7 years later, this bowler has emerged as the linchpin of the Mumbai Indians’ bowling attack. Jasprit Bumrah has now played 93 IPL matches for MI and has picked up 111 wickets at an excellent strike rate of 19.06. In fact, in the 2020 edition of the IPL, the pacer scalped a whopping 27 wickets and played a key role in the Mumbai side lifting the IPL title.

Bumrah is now a pacer, who is dreaded for his ability to bowl toe-crushing yorkers at will and scalp wickets with stunning regularity. And, it all boiled down to Mumbai spotting him as a 19-year-old rookie with latent talent. Mumbai provided the breeding ground for Bumrah’s talent to blossom, and he is now a colossus in IPL cricket.