Now that the date of IPL 2023 mini auction has been announced, the 10 franchises of the IPL will soon have to submit the list of the players that they want to retain before the mini auction goes ahead.
While it’s certain that most of the franchises will be retaining their big names because it’s only a mini auction and there is no cap on the no. of retentions that a franchise can make, some franchises might be making a couple of surprise retentions too.
Here are the 2 surprise retentions that Mumbai Indians might make ahead of IPL 2023 mini auction –
Ramandeep Singh
Since Mumbai Indians lost too many games too early last season and didn’t have any chance of qualifying to the playoffs, they gave opportunities to quite a few of their young players in the squad and the seam bowling allrounder Ramandeep Singh was one of them.
Ramandeep got four games to play for Mumbai Indians last season and although his overall numbers don’t look great, the Mumbai fans would remember that Ramandeep almost won them a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad with key contributions with both bat and ball. Mumbai might decide to retain the 25-year old from Punjab as a potential replacement of Hardik Pandya in future.
Hrithik Shokeen
Hrithik Shokeen was another youngster that Mumbai tried after it became clear that they couldn’t qualify to the playoffs. Just like Ramandeep, Hrithik’s numbers might not look great on paper because he played only three games, but during those games, Hrithik showed that not only has he got good temperament, he has got skills of high standard as well, with both bat and ball.
The 22-year old off spinning allrounder bailed Mumbai out of trouble in a low scoring thriller against the arch rivals Chennai Super Kings, when he was promoted up the batting order after an early collapse. The young right hander batted sensibly and scored 20 odd runs at a crucial juncture, which helped Mumbai win that game. Hrithik might be able to retain his place in the Mumbai Indians squad ahead of IPL 2023 mini auction.
