Mumbai Indians roped in Nuwan Thushara the Sri Lankan pacer for 4.40 crores in the IPL 2024 auction. The pacer with a similar bowling action to Lasith Malinga has already played in the Lankan Premier League, the Abu Dhabi T10 League the Sri Lankan national cricket team.
Alongside Nuwan Thushara, Mumbai Indians also bought Dilshan Madushanka for 4.60 crores and South African rising speedster Gerald Coetzee for 5 crores. The three-man pace attack is considered to be the next-gen of Mumbai Indians alongside Jasprit Bumrah.
Speaking after the IPL 2024 auction, the Mumbai Indians head coach spoke about the pace attack that the management has been successful in getting. He said that MI got the likes of Coetzee and Madushanka at a relatively cheaper price than expected.
“We were surprised that we got both of them at a very cheap price. We are really happy with the two international picks we have gotten so far,” said Boucher.
He further spoke about Dilshan Madushanka’s acquisition and said that they bagged him based on his recent performances. He picked up 21 wickets in the World Cup and was Sri Lanka’s highest wicket-taker in the competition.
Nuwan Thushara’s Selection Was Based On His Recent Performances: Mark Boucher
“We made the decision to go for him because he is a young, up and coming superstar. He is a three phase bowler. He swings the new ball nicely and has good change ups at the death. The selection is purely on the basis of what he has been doing of late and I’m sure he’ll add a lot of value to our team” he said.
He then spoke about the thought behind the acquisition of Nuwan Thushara. He said that with his unorthodox action, he is the X-factor for the team.
” Nuwan Thushara came into the equation in the last month or two. I was actually at the T10 competition that was played in Abu Dhabi. I saw him there he was bowling well, he picked up a lot of wickets and was not getting hit at the death as well. Polly was actually playing in that competition as well so he actually got to face him.” he added further.
Boucher also eluded to the fact that Lasith Malinga has worked with him before and watched him bowl from close quarters. Malinga will be back to Mumbai Indians as the new fast bowling coach.
“Mali has worked with him before as well. It was the right pick for all of us we were all very happy. Mahela has been around him as well so it was the right pick for all of us. He gives us some great variation and we have seen that in the IPL, if you have got something different you become a bit of an X-factor player and he will be our X-factor player” Boucher concluded saying.
Mumbai Indians IPL 2024 Squad: Hardik Pandya (Traded), Akash Madhwal, Arjun Tendulkar, Cameron Green, Dewald Brevis, Ishan Kishan, Jason Behrendorff, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, N. Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera, Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma, Romario Shepherd (Taded), Shams Mulani, Surya Kumar Yadav, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madhushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dheer, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma.
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