IPL 2021: Mumbai Indians Share a Photo Ahead of the Mini Auction on Thursday

The next Indian Premier (IPL) 2021, mini auction is scheduled to take place in Chennai on Thursday, February 18. The IPL 2021 mini auction is scheduled to begin at 3 pm and the eight participating IPL franchises will look to fill their vacancies and look for replacements to strengthen their squads.

Ahead of Thursday’s mini auction, reigning champions Mumbai Indians (MI) shared a photo on their official Twitter handle. They tweeted in Marathi and English and wrote, "आला रे आला ...#IPLAuction चा दिवस आला (The day of the IPL auction has arrived)," with a couple of emojis. In the tweet, they also asked their fans whom they address as ‘Paltan’ if they are ‘ready for the big day.’

See it here:https://twitter.com/mipaltan/status/1362242938252775431

The tweet has raked in thousands of ‘likes’ within hours of going online. Several fans and users of the microblogging site took to the comments section to express their joy and wish the team.

Earlier this year, the Board of Controller for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the IPL governing council reportedly confirmed close to 292 players to be part of the auction pool for the upcoming tournament. However, the final list was trimmed after the eight franchises submitted their shortlist of players, earlier this year. The initial list that had close to 1,114 cricketers, who earlier registered for the auction.

Among the final 292 players – 164 Indian players and 125 overseas players and three from associate nations are enlisted for the auctions. And there will be 61 slots spread across eight franchises up for grabs.

In the 14th edition of the IPL, five-time champions Mumbai Indians have a purse limit of 15.35 crore. Among the 18 players, they have seven open slots open which include four overseas players. However, the Mumbai franchise won't have much work to do at the IPL 2021 auction as the reigning champions have a settled squad at their disposal. Ahead of the auction, they had released seven players including the likes of Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan Coulter-Nile and James Pattinson, among others.

Other than strengthening their overseas pace department, Mumbai Indians will be looking to buy a back-up all-rounder for Kieron Pollard. They might replace Coulter-Nile -- Kyle Jamieson or Glenn Maxwell, Shakib Al Hasan among others are all probable choices who will go under the hammer on Thursday.

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