I think we have covered all the bases as far as the Mumbai Indians is concerned: Parthiv Patel

The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be a unique one, as there will be no home and away concept now. And, the Mumbai Indians (MI) will not be playing a single match at their home ground, the Wankhede stadium this year.

Now, former Indian cricketer Parthiv Patel has said that the place where the Mumbai Indians are playing will not matter at all. Adding that he has done a lot of scouting for the franchise, the diminutive cricketer said that he is confident about the process followed by the Mumbai franchise.

Patel further said that if there was one place where Mumbai could have improved from last year, it was the acquisition of an experienced wrist spinner. And, the Mumbai side managed to do that, as they pouched Piyush Chawla for INR 2.4 Crores. He also stated that the reason behind buying Chawla was because the Rohit Sharma-led outfit needed an experienced spinner in its arsenal.

“I have done a lot of scouting for MI. I know what kind of work we have put in, what kind of process the Mumbai Indians have put in. It will not matter as much where Mumbai Indians are playing. If there was any one thing which anyone would have talked about last year’s Mumbai Indians squad is the need of another experienced spinner, ideally a wrist-spinner, we have got that. This year we went in with the thought that it is just a one-year tournament with the big auction coming up, we needed the most experienced wrist-spinner in the side and we got it. So, I think we have covered all the bases as far as the Mumbai Indians is concerned,” said Patel in a discussion on Star Sports.

Parthiv Patel rates Marco Jansen highly

Patel also opened up on why the Mumbai Indians bought South African pacer Marco Jansen. He said that the Mumbai side had seen several videos of Jansen and knew that he could bowl well. Adding that Jansen is tall and can also hit the ball a fair distance with the willow, Patel said that the Mumbai side is well placed ahead of the 14th edition of the IPL.

“Everyone is playing good cricket. There have been some surprises about Marco Jansen where not many people knew about it but we have seen in the videos how well he can bowl. He is tall, lanky, 20-year-old and can hit long. So all in all, the Mumbai Indians are sitting pretty. Now it is up to how we prepare and how the process happens and just get that habit going,” signed off Patel.

The Mumbai Indians have won the IPL a staggering 5 times and are the defending champions as well. Looking at how strong their squad is ahead of the 2021 edition for the IPL, they will once again start as the favorites for the 14th season of the tournament.