Where Mumbai Indians finished last season
Rock bottom, with just four wins from 14 games.
Mumbai Indians squad for IPL 2023
Rohit Sharma (capt), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal
Player availability - Jasprit Bumrah to miss IPL 2023
Jasprit Bumrah is going to miss an entire IPL season for the first time since his debut in 2013, which will keep the fans waiting to watch him and Jofra Archer bowling in tandem for Mumbai. Bumrah's irreplaceable skills will give Rohit Sharma a headache, and his fast-bowling stocks have been depleted further with Jhye Richardson also ruled out of the IPL. Mumbai are yet to name replacements for the two quicks.
Apart from those two, the rest are available for selection. The South Africans Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brevis are not picked for the Netherlands ODIs and hence will be available for Mumbai's first game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 2.
What's new with Mumbai this year
Mumbai will finally get to unleash Archer, having bought him in the 2022 auction even though they knew he was unavailable for last year's season. They also have Cameron Green as a replacement for Kieron Pollard, who is now Mumbai's batting coach. They also bought the hard-hitting Vishnu Vinod, who strikes at 138.81 in T20s.
The not-so-good: Mumbai's thin fast-bowling stocks
It was widely said after the 2022 mega auction that Mumbai had built a team for IPL 2023, and now that 2023 is here, they are missing Bumrah. Their fast-bowling stocks look terribly thin without him and Richardson, and currently comprise Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Uttarakhand's right-arm quick Akash Madhwal and fast-bowling allrounders Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Arshad Khan and Duan Jansen.
Mumbai are also without a marquee spinner once again. They have won titles without renowned spinners before, but with their pace resources depleted, the lack of experience in their spin department might be felt more acutely this season. They do have legspinner Piyush Chawla in the squad but he last played the IPL in 2021, and that too just one game for CSK.
The good - Replacements for Pollard, Hardik
After losing both Hardik Pandya and Pollard in the last couple of years, Mumbai have tried to replace them by bringing in Tim David, Brevis, Tilak Varma, and now Green to keep their middle and lower-order power packed. Of that lot, David is the eldest at 24, which gives Mumbai a solid core to build around for the next few years.
Schedule insights: Can Mumbai reclaim the Wankhede?
Mumbai are famous for starting slow and making a late dash for the playoffs. If it comes to that again, they play three of their last four games at their fortress - the Wankhede Stadium - after alternating between away and home games for their first nine matches.
They will also have to reclaim their hold on the fortress, where they lost two of four games last season, when all league matches were played in Mumbai and Pune.