Indian Premier League 2024

'Toh fir nikalo 36 wale motu ko' - Fans react as Mumbai builds core of youngsters for future in Indian T20 League

The Mumbai franchise has built a core of youngsters that could set the Indian T20 League on fire in the years to come.

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Akshay
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Mumbai

Mumbai (Image credit: Twitter)

Mumbai Mumbai (Image credit: Twitter)

Having won five Indian T20 League titles, Mumbai is the most successful team in the history of India's men's T20 franchise cricket league. Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma and the presence of quality world-class players and young talent in the squad, they have dominated the cash-league for years. However, the franchise hasn't had a great campaign in the last two years and it looks like the same fate will repeat this time around for the former champions who suffered a miserable defeat against Bangalore in their first match of the 2023 ITL.

On Sunday, April 2, Mumbai took on Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the five-time champions did not forget to continue their trend of losing their first match of the ITL. In a match where Bangalore dominated the batting and bowling, Mumbai did not manage to get a hold and suffered a massive 8-wicket defeat.

While Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis stole the show at their home ground, laying the foundations for their side with a 148-run partnership, not everyone could forget Tilak Varma, the lone warrior of the Mumbai team. With wickets falling at one end and his side looking set to settle for a below-par score, the 20-year-old stood tall and steadied the ship with sensible and heroic performance. The young sensation, who stunned everyone with 397 runs from 14 innings last year, proved to be a player to watch out for in the future with his unbeaten 84 off 46 balls on Sunday night.

Mumbai is rich in young talent

Not just Varma, Mumbai have a long list of young guns in their pockets, some who could set the cash-rich league ablaze in the years to come. South African cricketer Dewald Brevis -  their youngest player (19 years old) - has already shown his ability to smash bowlers around the park while playing for his national team and ITL franchise last year. In the last auction, they bought Aussie future star Cameron Green (23), who recently scored his maiden Test century against India.

The 22-year-old Nehal Vadhera, who scored 21 runs at a strike rate of 161.54 against Bangalore yesterday, showed that he can perform well in the coming matches. Arshad Khan (25) also did a decent job yesterday in picking up the wicket of opponent captain du Plessis, who was on a song to finish the match. Other youngsters in the Mumbai camp are 22-year-old Tristan Stubbs, Hrithik Shokeen (22), Ramandeep Singh (25) and bowling all-rounder Kumar Karthikeya (25).

Here's how fans reacted to Mumbai's building a team for the future: 

 

 

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