IPL Auction: Mumbai Indians Will Go All-In To Buy Ishan Kishan, Reckons Aakash Chopra

Former India batter and cricket commentator Aakash Chopra has predicted that Mumbai Indians (MI) will do everything to get Ishan Kishan back in the team at the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction, scheduled on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru.

"MI will do their level best to get back Ishan Kishan and that will come at a cost but yes they might have to look at a different formula for success as compared to what has worked so far," Chopra said on Star Sports show 'Game Plan IPL Auction Special'.

Chopra said that MI will have to look for a different formula for success in IPL 2022 considering that all-rounder Hardik Pandya had gone to Ahmedabad Titans, while wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan could be snapped up by other teams in the bidding war.

"It will be very difficult because there is no right-to-match cards, to begin with, and secondly, their whole success formula that they eventually found was about two skilled players -- they had Hardik, Krunal and Pollard one after the other and that provided them with a lot of depth. Their wicketkeeper was always a phenomenal batter, when you look at Quinton de Kock or Ishan Kishan -- is it possible to now get all of them together; it's almost next to impossible," he said.

"There is one thing that I think a record might just change that -- in auctions, they rarely spend more than 10 crores on a player, I don't recall too many instances when they have gone ahead and broken their bank. This time at least for one if not two, they'll be getting close to that 10-crore mark," he added.

MI retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard and Suryakumar Yadav while leaving Kishan ahead of the mega auction. Kishan, not a part of the marquee set, has listed his base price at Rs two crore.