Mumbai Indians (MI) have assembled the best pace attack. They might have bought just seven players so far at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction, but their fast bowling pack now consists of Jasprit Bumrah, the best T20 bowler in the world, and Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar, who stand atop among bowlers with most powerplay wickets since 2018.
How Deepak Chahar makes MI’s pace attack formidable
Boult was bought by MI for Rs 12.50 crore, and now they’ve got another swing menace in Chahar. The right-arm pacer has 8 years of experience in the IPL and is the Chennai Super Kings‘ fifth-highest wicket-taker of all time. This is exactly why Mumbai shelled out Rs 9.25 crore for him. Furthermore, as if MI’s powerplay bowling wasn’t already strong with Bumrah and Boult but now with Chahar their powerplay overs will taken care about the two best new ball fast bowlers, who have combined taken 116 wickets in last 6 six years.
This frees up Hardik Pandya, MI’s captain, immensely. Now, he won’t have to fall upon Bumrah’s services up top to get him wickets and instead use him in the middle and death overs when the batters are ready to change the momentum. They also have Hardik himself, who can bowl some good back-of-the-length deliveries during the middle-overs.
How Bhuvneshwar Kumar forced MI to get Deepak Chahar
Mumbai had gone after Bhuvneshwar Kumar before they bagged Chahar. They started the bid for Bhuvi and were willing to pay as much as Rs 10.25 crore for the veteran pacer who won the purple cap back to back in 2016 and 2017. But the Royal Challengers Bengaluru ultimately beat them and got Bhuvi for Rs 10.75 crore.
So, they went hard after another great powerplay pacer in Chahar. Like Bhuvi, they started the bid for him as well and didn’t stop until they finally got him for Rs 9.25 crore, 1 crore less than they were ready to pay for Bhuvi.
Deepak Chahar’s IPL stats
| Matches | Wickets | Average | Economy | Strike Rate | 4w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 81 | 77 | 28.84 | 7.98 | 21.6 | 2 |
