Mumbai Indians: From wooden spoons to trophy rooms

Perhaps there’s something in Mumbai’s waters because the ‘City of Dreams’ just can’t seem to stop producing cricketing champions.

Forty-two Ranji Trophy titles, two Vijay Hazare crowns, two Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy triumphs, five Indian Premier League trophies, and two WPL tiles as on Saturday after Mumbai’s women were coronated at the Brabourne Stadium on the final day of the Women’s Premier League. 

Remarkable as all those domestic accolades are, Mumbai Indians’ men seem to have forgotten to take a sip from the sacred chalice. 

While MI have won as many titles as Chennai Super Kings to continue to reiterate the narrative as the team to beat in every edition, the last four years have been substandard, to say the least. Since winning a title in 2020, they have (chronologically) finished fifth, tenth, third and tenth.

In the interim, they have lost some fine players to injuries or ageing, sold off some talent in an effort to complement their core, changed captains from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya, and now they have refurbished their set-up to see if they can stem the rot which has - for pedigree purposes - gone on for far too long as it is. 

Their auction strategy ahead of the 2025 season was reflective of this renovation as they onboarded the likes of Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks, Mitchell Santner and Mujeeb Us Rahman. 

While these names, or anyone else really, can compensate for losing out Jasprit Bumrah for the initial stages of the tournament, it does give them some options to toy with, especially at the slow Wankhede surface. 

Mumbai’s issue, however, (and this will come as a surprise) is their batting. They have some of the most dynamic batters world cricket has ever seen, and yet they came up looking pedestrian last season. Still, Mumbai’s management, ever prudent with their judgement, ended up retaining Rohit, Hardik, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma to maybe combine and dust off the trophy cabinet.

This could well be the last season for this core, but now that Hardik has stumbled upon his mojo again, and Rohit is still high on his travails from the Champions Trophy, you can’t write off the possibility of a sixth. Then again, no one ever did.