Mumbai Indians Call Up 19-Year-Old Kashmir Pacer For Trials Ahead Of The Auction For IPL 2021

The defending champions, Mumbai Indians have made their intentions clear for winning the trophy again by commencing their preparatory ad trail camps ahead of the auction for IPL 2021. As the auction for the 4th edition of the IPL is slated for early next month, they have called up few youngsters for trial.

One amongst them is Kashmir’s young pace sensation, Mujtaba Yousuf. The 19-year-old has impressed the MI scouting team during the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. While his side,  Jammu & Kashmir may have failed to reach the quarter-finals, Mujtaba Yousuf has turned several heads because of his bowling.

The left-arm pacer has picked  5 wickets in 4 matches, including a best of 3/14 against Uttar Pradesh – dismissing Suresh Raina for a duck.

As per the reports by sources around the J&K team, the young pacer has directly moved to Mumbai from Bengaluru, where he was playing the Syed Mushtaq matches, for the trials on January 19. If the franchise likes the bowler, they would bid for him at the auction table.

Born in the Bijbehara town of South Kashmir, Yousuf has snared 10 wickets in just 2 First-Class matches, along with a 6-for. He also has a more-than-good economy of 7.32 in T20 cricket. Courtesy of his robust body and The youngster went to the UAE as well as a net bowler of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2020.

Mumbai Indians release 7 players ahead of the auction

On Wednesday, the Nita Ambani owned franchise announced their released and retained players. From the title-winning squad of last season, Mumbai Indians has released all but Trent Boult from their overseas fast bowling contingent: Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson, and Mitchell McClenaghan are being offloaded while veteran pacer, Lasith Malinga has retired from franchise cricket.

Youngsters, Sherfane Rutherford, Prince Balwant Rai, and Digvijay Deshmukh have also been released back into the auction pool by the 5-time champions.

No doubt that the Rohit Sharma-led franchise will aim to bag a couple of overseas fast bowlers in the forthcoming auction to give support and back-up for Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult. Mumbai Indians would also be looking for an experienced spinner as a back-up for Rahul Chahar. Rest, the defending champions are heavy favourites to retain the title and would want to make a hat-trick of titles.

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