On the eve of a potential IPL debut for Chennai Super Kings, New Zealand allrounder Daryl Mitchell was unveiled as Texas Super Kings' new overseas signing for MLC 2024. Mitchell will join his New Zealand and CSK team-mates Mitchell Santner and Devon Conway in the USA.
MI New York, the defending champions, have signed West Indies allrounder Romario Shepherd, who is due to make his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024, and South Africa fast bowler Anrich Nortje. Shepherd, who has raised his all-round game to a new level after winning CPL 2023 with Guyana Amazon Warriors, will reunite with his first West Indies captain and Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard at MI NY. Trent Boult, Tim David and Kagiso Rabada are also part of a powerful overseas core at MI NY.
New Zealand spin-bowling allrounder Michael Bracewell, who has been troubled by injuries over the past year, went to Seattle Orcas and Australia batter Matt Short to San Francisco Unicorns. Bracewell will join his former Wellington Firebirds team-mate Finn Allen at Unicorns.
In MLC 2023, Orcas didn't have an offspinner to counter left-handers. They have remedied that by signing Bracewell, who claimed a career-best 8 for 41 in the four-day Plunket Shield earlier this week.
Super Kings' head coach Stephen Fleming had previously worked with Mitchell when he was part of New Zealand's coaching staff in the lead-up to 2023 ODI World Cup in India. Mitchell dominated spin during that tournament and made CSK splurge INR 14 crore on him.
"I'm really excited to be part of the Texas Super Kings and to get to yellove again and be part of the CSK family," Mitchell told Super Kings' social-media channels. "I think the cool thing about the MLC following the World Cup being in the West Indies and the America [is] the conditions should be pretty similar and hopefully we continue to adapt to the different conditions and get stuck in."
Shepherd, who has now added a Dwayne Bravo-esque slower dipper to his repertoire, will shore up MI NY's death bowling. In the domestic draft, Super Kings snapped up Raj Nannan and Josh Tromp, the twin brother of Matthew Tromp, who was drafted by Los Angeles Knight Riders. CSK have also added some USA flavour to their IPL squad by bringing in dart-it-in mystery spinner Anirudh Immanuel as a net bowler. The 19-year-old has played for the Philadelphians in Minor League Cricket in the USA.
West Indies wicketkeeper-batter Jahmar Hamilton, meanwhile, was the 16th pick in the draft by Unicorns. Former Pakistan international Hammad Azam, who was with Knight Riders in the inaugural season, was picked by Orcas in the recent draft.
Former Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batter Adithya Ganesh, who had recently moved to the USA, was the No.1 pick in the domestic draft, and he'll turn out for Knight Riders. Ganesh, 32, was TN's reserve wicketkeeper-batter when they won the 20-overs Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy under Vijay Shankar in 2021. Ganesh is a good player of spin and has worked with R Ashwin as a middle-order floater at Dindigul Dragons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). Ganesh's experience and exposure to Indian conditions played a part in his selection, Ryan ten Doeschate, Knight Riders' assistant coach, who is currently at the IPL, has said.
"Our thinking was it was most important to cover the starting XI, and we didn't want to take any risks," Ten Doeschate told MLC network." We did a lot of research on Adithya; he is someone who has played in India quite a bit. So, we were pretty determined to get him and then sort of make up where we need to further along the line. Adithya seemed the best out of the bunch with our research and what we think we need this year."