MI: Defending champs

After initial struggle at the hay days of Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians finally settled in as the best franchise of the league by winning the coveted trophy thrice. Creating a team nucleus and retaining the same season after season has propelled them at the epitome of the cash-enriched league.

Maintaining the trend, the management retained key players from preceding season in skipper Rohit Sharma, Keiron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Krunal Pandya.

And have certainly bolster their strength with the acquisition of Kevin Lewis, Pat Cummins and Mustafizur Rahman.

Smearing the bowling line-up with Bumrah, Cummins, Rahman, Pandya and Pollard surely makes a strong pace attack but letting go Harbhajan Singh and not buying any renowned spinner is their shortcoming and might cost them the title too.

As far as the batting is concern, hard-hitter Kevin Lewis is set to be the opener but lacks a prominent partner. The void could be either filled by Rohit Sharma, who regularly opens for Team India or they have to show faith in yong Turk Ishan Kishan who had an inconsistent maiden season with debunked Gujarat Lions.

Middle order seems as strong as it was last season with skipper Rohit, Saurabh Tiwari, Keiron Pollard, and Hardik Pandya retaining their roles.