Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene returns as Mumbai Indians head coach after two years of absence from the Indian Premier League.
This time around, every IPL franchise has made several changes to their coaching units, as likes of great Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, and Dwayne Bravo have returned to the role of mentors for different sides. Jayawardene returns as the head of the Mumbai Indians replacing Mark Boucher.
Jayawardene holds a great legacy with the Mumbai Indians as he has served as the Mumbai Indians head coach from 2017 to 2022. It was during this span that the Mumbai Indians won three IPL titles in 2017, and 2019 and the last one in 2020.
In 2022, he stepped into a broader role of a global head of performance. He guided their coaching and scouting unit for all of the Mumbai Indians franchise teams such as Mumbai Indians in IPL, MI Emirates in the ILT20, MI New York in Major League Cricket and lastly the MI Cape Town in SA20.
“We are thrilled to have Mahela back as the head coach of Mumbai Indians,” Akash Ambani, owner of the franchise, said. “With our global teams having found their footing within their ecosystems, the opportunity to bring him back to MI arose. His leadership, knowledge, and passion for the game have always benefited MI.” he added.
Owing to their last position finish changes Mumbai Indians might make to their Squad
After having two miserable seasons in 2021 and 2022, the Indians made it to the knockouts in 2023.
Gujarat Titans, the defending champions from 2022, went on to defeat the five-time champions of the Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier game of the season.
Jayawardene’s first role would be to fix the retentions for the side. With every franchise assigned over 120 Crores INR, and nearly 75 Crores to be used for retention, he would have many such players to be given a pre-place in the squad ahead of the mega-auction.
With the likes of star Indian batter and current skipper of the national side Suryakumar Yadav and the World’s greatest T20I all-rounder and pace bowler already in the squad, it would become a particularly tough job for the Lankan legend to fix a set of players to be retained.
Other than Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah might be retained by the Mumbai Indians, while ace Indian rising star Tilak Varma might be one of the other batters who can also be retained.
Though some of the great batters, Rohit Sharma, the IPL veteran and big-hitter Tim David, also their costliest player bought in an auction, Ishan Kishan might be released ahead of the mega-auction.
