After a forgettable IPL 2022 campaign, Mumbai Indians are all set to start their preparations in earnest for the next edition, with a three-week exposure tour of England in July for their uncapped Indian players.
Apart from enjoying training at various state-of-the-art facilities, the Indian youngsters of Mumbai will be playing at least ten T20 games against top club sides across multiple counties.
"Tilak Varma, Kumar Kartikeya, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen are some of the players who will get exposure playing against top T20 club sides in trying conditions," an IPL insider privy to the development told PTI. "Arjun Tendulkar, who is also in the UK and South African youngster Dewald Brevis are also likely to join the touring party."
The Mumbai support staff, including head coach Mahela Jayawardene, will be in England to oversee the progress of the Indian players.
"Look, the Indian domestic season has come to an end," the source said. "While the top players like skipper Rohit Sharma, premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be now on the road with the national team, our international stars will also be busy with their respective commitments. The ones who need to be monitored are our younger crop of players as they won't be having any match practice for three and half months before the next domestic season starts.
"So effectively, we can't call it a pre-season trip as IPL is still nine months away. But it is trying to monitor the progress of our core group of youngsters going forward."
For this trip though, Mumbai don't need any BCCI permission unless the team is playing exhibition games against other franchises or overseas T20 sides.
"This trip isn't a commercial one where there will be tickets sold or the match will be broadcast on a particular channel or streamed on some app. Since the trip isn't a revenue generator, we don't need to apply for any permission from BCCI.
"We are only taking those players to the UK who are not associated with any national team activities, not summoned for any of the BCCI conducted camps, and not playing in any league (like TNPL)."
Players likely to go for the UK trip: Tilak Varma, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Mayank Markande, Rahul Buddhi, Ramandeep Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Basil Thampi, Murugan Ashwin, Aryan Juyal, Akash Medhwal, Arshad Khan, Arjun Tendulkar, Dewald Brevis