MI Cape Town (which is the sister franchise of Mumbai Indians) already had one of the strongest squads before the SAT20 league auction, as they had signed some big guns of world cricket including Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis, Rashid Khan, Sam Curran, and Liam Livingstone.
But, MI Cape Town then went on to further strengthen their squad in the auction yesterday and added some more star power to the group of 5 match winners that they had assembled pre-auction. MI had plans to go hard for one of their IPL players Tristan Stubbs, but they couldn’t buy him eventually as the Sunrisers Eastern Cape also went hard for Stubbs and eventually secured his services for a little more than 9 million Rand.
MI was, however, able to secure the services of Rassie van der Dussen who is a very experienced local middle order batsman and can hold one end while the likes of Brevis and Livingstone go hard at the other end. MI also added a spin allrounder George Linde to their ranks to pair up with their marquee signing and the no. 1 T20 spinner in the world, Rashid Khan.
MI Cape Town didn’t go hard for too many players too early
The strategy of MI during the SAT20 league auction was not to go hard for too many players too early. They went hard for a few players, but not for everyone because they knew that the other teams would run out of purses towards the end of the auction and they could sign whoever they wanted later, during the accelerated round of the auction.
Here is your first-ever #MICapeTown squad for the upcoming #SA20 season 💙
The #OneFamily is ready to rock 👊😎#OneFamily #MICapeTown #SA20Auction @SA20_League pic.twitter.com/FY2RkFXy5r
Advertisement— MI Cape Town (@MICapeTown) September 19, 2022
MI ended up signing many overseas and local players during the accelerated auction at a low price because the other teams had either run out of money or didn’t have any spots to fill in their squads.
Apart from the above-mentioned signings, two of the other signings which can prove to be very useful for MI during the first SAT20 league are the South African wicketkeeper-batsman Ryan Rickelton who can open the batting, and the England fast bowler Olly Stone who can form a lethal combination with Kagiso Rabada.
