“MI’s campaign for this season is over, need to start building team for next 2-3 years” - RP Singh 

Former Indian pacer RP Singh reckons that with no chance of qualifying for the playoffs this season, Mumbai Indians’ (MI) must start preparing for the forthcoming IPL editions. He urged the franchise to give fringe players an opportunity in the remaining games and see what they can come up with.

Mumbai registered their first victory in IPL 2022 when they got the better of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five wickets in their previous match. The win ended their eight-game losing streak in the ongoing competition.

The five-time IPL champions will look to build on the positives from their triumph over RR when they face the Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday, 6 May. Previewing the game, Singh said that it’s all about looking towards the future for MI from here onwards. Sharing his views on Cricbuzz, he said:

“Let’s be honest, MI’s campaign for this season is over. They now need to look forward and start building the team for the next two to three years. The bench they picked at the auction, Mumbai must now test them and find out whether they can be part of the race in the long run. I think Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav will play. We might see some changes in bowling. They can give new players a go and analyze where they are lacking, so they can prepare for the next auction accordingly.”

The former left-arm pacer named young keeper-batter Aryan Juyal as one player he is looking forward to watching. He said:

“I have personally seen him and he looks quite an exciting talent. He is one who can be tried out.”

Juyal is a 20-year-old keeper-batter from Uttar Pradesh who has played seven T20 matches so far.

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“Right time to rest seniors like Bumrah” - Virender Sehwag on MI’s gameplan

Sharing similar views, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag suggested that Mumbai could even rest senior players like Jasprit Bumrah and experiment with the squad to get the maximum out of the remaining games. He opined:

“I think this is the right time to rest seniors like Bumrah and Rohit Sharma. They can try out new players and evaluate who can be retained and who can be released. When the big names are not there, a new or unknown name might emerge as a hero. If things go wrong, at the most, they might end up losing another match.”

While Bumrah has claimed only five wickets from nine matches, captain Rohit has scored 155 runs at an average of 17.22 in IPL 2022.