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Mumbai Indians in IPL 2016: Know your team

Mumbai Indians — the defending champions — will enter the tournament as one of the favourites.

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Mumbai Indians will enter the tournament with a strong shot at retaining the title © IANS
Mumbai Indians will enter the tournament with a strong shot at retaining the title © IANS

Over the years Mumbai Indians have emerged as one of the most enigmatic teams in the Indian Premier League. They started off as among the bottom teams initially but astonishingly climbed up the ranks through the years. They continue to have disparaging phases within course of a single season though off late their ups have mostly outnumbered the downs. They are now boast one of the most impressive records of all IPL sides. Their head-to-head record is not unfavourable against any team. In fact they are the only team who down the now-suspended Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on head-to-head ratio. Rishad D’Souza profiles this team headed by Rohit Sharma.

Mumbai Indians will enter the 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League as defending champions. In the previous edition they beat Chennai Super Kings in the final to take the coveted trophy. In a lot of ways the previous season was an embodiment of their story at large. They started off poorly. When they lost their first four games on a trot, no one gave them a chance. But thereon, they were just spectacular.

The turnaround was largely influenced by Mitchell McClenaghan. He was brought in as replacement for an injured Corey Anderson and he brought a new dimension to a wearing pace attack. All of a sudden things fell in place for the Mumbai outfit and they transformed into an invincible force.

That was the second title for Mumbai Indians after they won it in 2013 previously. They are one of the stronger outfits anyway and in the absence of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) — their arch rivals — they will stand an even better chance of victory.

Not only is Mumbai Indians one of the most successful franchises on the field but have enjoyed great stability off it to. Off the lot that will play the 2016 edition of the IPL, merely three others have been part of the tournament since its inception. These other teams include Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).

The success of Mumbai Indians as a team is well reflected in their outstanding record. Out of 126 games they have played, victory has been theirs on 73 occasions while only 53 have gone against them. They are the only team to boast a positive head to head record against the strong CSK outfit.

Opponent Played Won Tied Lost
Chennai Super Kings 22 12 0 10
Royal Challengers Bangalore 17 9 0 8
Delhi Daredevils 16 8 0 8
Rajasthan Royals 16 10 0 6
Kings XI Punjab 16 8 0 8
Kolkata Knight Riders 16 11 0 5
Deccan Chargers 10 6 0 4
Pune Warriors 6 5 0 1
Sunrisers 6 4 0 2
Kochi Tuskers Kerala 1 0 0 1
Total 126 73 0 53

In fact the only team they don’t have an unfavourable record against is the defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala who are not part of the IPL anymore. However, the sample size of one game is too little to make a judgement on basis off.

Mumbai Indians are a well-rounded team and just need a little bit of consolidating in certain areas as they enter the auction but nothing significant. They already have 19 players in their roster and don’t have lot of money in the kitty for big spends either.

MI squad before auction: Akshay Wakhare, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, J Suchitch, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Rana, Parthiv Patel, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma (c), Shreyas Gopal, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, Unmukt Chand, Corey Anderson, Keiron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Lendl Simmons, Marchant de Lange, Mitchell McClenaghan

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