'We did a lot of planning for this auction' - Mumbai Indians owner Akash Ambani expresses his satisfaction over the event

Defending champions of the Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians added seven new players to their squad for the upcoming season. Like every year, they kept their core intact and added a few more players to their ranks. They specifically bought players whom they needed as a back-up for their already existing squad. 

In a recent interaction after the auction, the owner of the Mumbai Indian franchise, Akash Ambani admitted that there was a lot of planning done by them ahead of the auction. They bought back Nathan Coulter-Nile for INR 5 crores, which is 3 crores less than what they had spent on him in the last auction. Instead, they got Adam Milne for 3.2 crores this year. 

While speaking on the planning, Ambani revealed how the planning went on behind the scenes as they put together all the pieces left in the jigsaw puzzle. They also added Piyush Chawla, who is an experienced leg-spinner in the league and was released by Chennai ahead of the auction. 

I believe we have a complete squad in Mumbai Indians: Akash Ambani

“We did a lot of planning for this auction. We were on video conference 12 hours a day in the last few days in the build-up to the auction. Every auction requires a lot of hard work. This was a special year where we didn’t do any trades compared to the last few years, so we had to prepare extra hard for that. We believe we have a complete squad,” Akash Ambani said as quoted by Sportskeeda. 

Ambani expressed his pleasure in bringing back some of the pacers who had previously been with the franchise. Like Coulter-Nile, Milne had also been part of the Indians’ setup once. “We put a squad together, and we thought we needed to add experience from last year. I wouldn’t want to single out any of the picks. We are really happy with everyone coming into the squad. Coulter-Nile coming back, Adam Milne coming back”‘ Akash Ambani added.

After winning two back to back titles in 2019 and 2020, the Mumbai Indians look like a solid squad that would be looking at winning the title three times in a row. No team has ever won the title thrice in a row. Chennai had won it back to back in 2010 and 2011 but lost their third consecutive final to Kolkata.