Mumbai Indians (MI) have arguably the strongest core in their team before the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction. The five-time IPL champions have managed to retain all four of their international Indian stars, in the form of Jasprit Bumrah, captain Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma. Now, MI’s biggest challenge comes in filling the squad adequately with a comparatively low budget of Rs 45 crore in the mega auction. Former India cricketer-turned-pundit Aakash Chopra has predicted that Mumbai Indians could bid hard for an Indian spinner.

“Given their retentions, Mumbai Indians may end up having an entire Indian batting lineup and an entire overseas bowling lineup, apart from a couple of Indian spinners. Whether they get him or not, they will definitely go after Yuzvendra Chahal. They may also want to look at Washington Sundar,” said Aakash Chopra, speaking on his YouTube channel.

Chahal was surprisingly not retained by Rajasthan Royals (RR) ahead of the mega auction. The leg-spinner is the highest wicket-taker in IPL history, and the only bowler to have more than 200 IPL wickets.

In fact, Chahal has picked 18 or more wickets in each of the last six IPL seasons.

On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s power-packed lineup from IPL 2024 meant that Washington Sundar had to be let go. However, having impressed in both T20Is and Test cricket for Team India recently, Sundar may fetch a high price in the auction.

Chopra also added that while he felt that Mumbai Indians could bid for Ishan Kishan, the 26-year-old wicket-keeper batter may be out of their budget. Instead, he suggested some alternatives.

“They’ll need a wicket-keeper batter. Maybe they go towards Quinton de Kock, or perhaps Jitesh Sharma or perhaps Phil Salt. They will need an overseas opener and wicket-keeper batter. Jitesh does not fit that completely, but he is an Indian,” said Chopra.

The IPL mega auction will be held in Jeddah on November 24 and 25.