Dubai: Mumbai Indians head coach, Mark Boucher has expressed his joy on franchise's buys in the auction room with the remark that Shreyas Gopal will be a good backup for Piyush Chawla.
Mumbai Indians(MI) opted for the Karnataka-based spinner in the auction and bought him for a base price of ₹ 2 Crores in the recently concluded mini auction. Shreyas has played 49 IPL games picking 49 wickets with a strike rate of 19.37 and an economy of 8.11. He has also taken 107 scalps in the T20 format. Considering MI had a sole internationally capped spinner in the form of Piyush Chawla, the franchise opted for a backup leg spinner in the form of Gopal and Boucher expressed satisfaction on the new purchase.
"Shreyas has been around for a very long time. We feel he’ll be very good back up to Piyush. He has a lot of experience, so is a very good option,” Boucher stated in a press conference.
Apart from Gopal, MI also bolstered their pace attack with the addition of South Africa’s Gerald Coetzee and Sri Lanka’s Dilshan Madhushanka in their ranks. Coetzee left a stunning impact with his performance in the recently concluded ODI World Cup picking 20 wickets form eight just games and was also the fifth highest-wicket taker in the tournament. Madushanka, the left-arm seamer has also been effective at the international stage taking 29 wickets with a strike rate of 18.1. Boucher remarked that both the picks will bolster their pace department and especially Madhushanka will be effective with new ball as well as death bowling.
“We were surprised that we got both of them at a very cheap price. We are really happy with the two international picks we have gotten so far. We made the decision to go for him because he is a young, up and coming superstar. He is a three phase bowler. He swings the new ball nicely and has good change ups at the death. The selection is purely on the basis of what he has been doing of late and I’m sure he’ll add a lot of value to our team,” he concluded.
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