NEW DELHI: Two days before the Indian Premier League (IPL) retention deadline ends, Mumbai Indians‘ (MI) activity has picked up. The five-time title winners have approached Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for leg-spinner Mayank Markande, and it’s reliably learnt that the conversations have reached the final stages. If all goes well, the trade could be announced soon, and the 28-year-old will be back with the franchise where he started his IPL journey in 2018.It is not confirmed at this stage whether another player is involved in the deal, as insiders feel it could well be an all-cash transaction. KKR bought the wrist-spinner for ₹30 lakh at the mega auction last year but didn’t give him a single game in the entire season.
MI have two wrist-spinners — Vignesh Puthur (chinaman) and Karn Sharma — and Markande’s inclusion gives them more options in the spin department. Markande had a brilliant debut season for MI, where he picked up 15 wickets in 14 games and went on to make his India debut less than a year after the IPL.He played only one T20I for India before things went south, and he didn’t get enough game time in the cash-rich league. In the next five years, even after joining two different teams, Markande could play only 23 games.Markande, however, is not the only leggie on MI’s radar. It is understood that there was, or still is, some interest in Rahul Chahar too, but it can’t be confirmed whether the interest materialised into any engagement with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
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The SRH camp wasn’t convinced with Chahar last season and played him in just one game, even after picking him for Rs 3.20 crore at the mega auction. In the intra-squad games, the SRH management found Chahar way off the mark and were happy to keep him on the bench.MI’s interest in Chahar is again not a surprise, as he too had a successful stint with the franchise.
