Ahead of the seventh season of the Indian Premier League, The National looks at each of the eight franchises who will be playing in the UAE. Our eighth and final instalment: Mumbai Indians.
Corey Anderson watched this year’s IPL auction unfold on the internet in a Wellington hotel room with the New Zealand bowling coach Shane Bond, the team physiotherapist and a security officer. He said it was “surreal” to watch franchises bidding for his services.
In the end, Mumbai Indians, who have Kiwi John Wright as their coach, paid US$750,000 (Dh2.75 million) for his services. A humbled Anderson called it a “life-changing” event. Life-changing it will be for Anderson, but it could be game changing for the Mumbai Indians.
It could be argued that Mumbai do not particularly need to change the game.
They are the defending champions and also won the Champions League T20 last year. But the prospect of adding Anderson to their squad was too good an opportunity to miss.
The Kiwi was the game’s most explosive batsman last winter. He may not have set the World Twenty20 alight in Bangladesh but, before then, nothing could stop him.
Beginning in October, with a first international hundred in a Test in Dhaka, Anderson embarked on a spectacular run of hitting.
On New Year’s Day against the West Indies in Queenstown, he reached a century in 36 balls to set a world record for the fastest ODI hundred. The innings ended with a scarcely believable 47-ball 131.
Two more blitzes were seen in the ODI series against India, as well as an example of his versatility with a steady-paced 77 in the Tests. That was enough for the IPL.
Anderson has not become a star overnight. He has long been seen – in New Zealand at least – as a prodigious talent after becoming the youngest player in 59 seasons to make a first-class debut. That was in 2006/07, when he was 16.
He has a sporting pedigree, as well. His father was a sprinter at the 1974 Commonwealth Games and his mother a netball player of some distinction. He shares with two of the finest all-rounders to play for New Zealand, Sir Richard Hadlee and Chris Cairns, being alumni of Christchurch Boys’ High School.
Like that pair, Anderson is an all-rounder by trade, even though it is through his batting that Mumbai will look to reap maximum benefit. His left-arm seam is handy, he can get some swing if the conditions are right and also bowls a pretty mean short-of-a-length ball.
The only worry is that he is injury-prone. That has prevented him from developing into a top-drawer all-rounder, as he still considers himself a batsman who bowls fourth change. At present, he is recovering from a finger injury he picked up during the World Twenty20.
But if Mumbai can keep him on the field, rest assured he will light it up at some stage.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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