'A team of Avengers' - Former India opener awestruck by Mumbai Indians' firepower ahead of IPL 2026

Former India batter Aakash Chopra is blown away by the quality of squad Mumbai Indians (MI) have assembled ahead of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.

MI have kept a largely unchanged squad from last year, which was quite evident in the mini auction for the upcoming season, when they entered the hall with a purse of just INR 2.75 crore. The five-time champions have a squad which is the envy of the other nine franchises in the tournament, brimming with Indian stars like Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma. 

Chopra himself speaks highly of MI’s squad and compares them to the fictional superhero group "Avengers", where every player is a world-beater in their position. 

"Qualifying for the playoffs 11 times, playing the final six times, and lifting the trophy five times, if you can do all those jobs, you will become the Mumbai Indians, and if you see the team this year as well, the opposing teams get goosebumps because they have a cheat code. It seems like it's a team of Avengers. Everyone has a superpower,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

MI strengthened their already strong squad by trading in Shardul Thakur from the Lucknow Super Giants and Sherfane Rutherford from the Gujarat Titans ahead of the auction event. The Mumbai-based franchise also picked South Africa’s Quinton de Kock in the auction for his base price of INR 1.00 crore, which seemed to be quite a steal deal, given the kind of form the wicketkeeper-batter has been in of late. 

"This team was already strong. There is no doubt about that, and they have made it stronger. They did it in the trade window itself, and then in the auction, this team has something because they can't do it on their own, the others also need to bid. God only knows what they do because they got Quinton de Kock for just ₹1 crore," he said.

"They got Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande and Shardul Thakur in the trade. It means they made a complete team more complete. They have activated the beast mode. The batting depth is insane. They have a plethora of options, so much so that you would feel someone should be played, but you won't be able to play them. I am talking about overseas players," Chopra added.

MI come into the 2026 IPL season as one of the favourites to lift the trophy. They start their campaign at home against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday, March 29. The Pandya-led side finished fourth last year and went on to beat GT in the Eliminator before losing to Punjab Kings in the subsequent playoff.