Mumbai Indians’ Sri Lankan wildcard for IPL 2018

The eagerly anticipated Indian Premier League(IPL) 2018 is set to kick-off on the 7th of April with what is expected to be a cracker of a contest between the defending champions Mumbai Indians and the returning Chennai Super Kings at the famous Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. 

Lasith Malinga has been one of the iconic Mumbai Indian players since the beginning of the IPL back in 2008, though this time he will act as their bowling mentor after being ignored during the IPL auction earlier in the year.

Another Sri Lankan great in Mahela Jayawardena will once again head the coaching department for the strong Mumbai Indians outfit, and he may also have a surprise or two up his sleeve just like he did in 2012 during the ICC World T20 as captain, with the unleashing of the then unknown mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya. 

The son of a carpenter from Panadura, Dananjaya studied at the Mahanama Vidyalaya, Panadura before going on to represent Sri Lanka at the highest stage. He was picked up during the IPL auction for his base price of INR 50 Lakhs (1.2 Crore SL rupees) by Mumbai Indians and is ready for his first ever IPL appearance during the tournament which is set to go on till the 31st of May.  In the 2013 IPL auctions, Dananjaya was sold to the Chennai Super Kings(CSK) for his base price of $20,000 but didn’t get a game throughout the season. 

“It is an absolute privilege for me to be a part of the Mumbai Indians unit. They have won the IPL 3 times and have been one of the most dominant teams in the history of IPL. This is a great opportunity and I will try to make the best use of it.”

You don’t need any second guesses as to who was the architect in picking him up for Mumbai Indians(MI) during the auction, as it continued to show the belief the former Sri Lankan skipper Jayawardena has in Dananjaya ever since his international debut back in 2012.

“I have learnt a lot from Mahela Ayya, our head coach and there’s a lot more that I can learn. It’s an added advantage that Lasith Ayya is our bowling mentor so there’s no doubt him along with Mahela Ayya will share their experience with me and the rest of the team. They are very friendly human beings so my goal is to learn as much as I can from them during the 2018 IPL”

Dananjaya almost disappeared from the international arena since that World T20 back in 2012 before appearing during Sri Lanka’s home series against Zimbabwe in 2017. He kept fighting for a regular place in the XI before his breakthrough spell came last August in an ODI against India as he used his variations to great effect to capture 6/54 against a star-studded Indian batting line up. He was unfortunate to end up on the losing side in the match but by then he had made a name for himself and people started talking about his variations which included the orthodox off spin, leg spin, googly and even a carrom ball which seemed to be very effective. 

Harbhajan Singh has been Mumbai’s premier off-spinner for a number of years but this time around he was sold to CSK and Akila Dananjaya might be a good candidate to replace him with no other specialist overseas spinner in the MI squad nor an experienced Indian spinner other than all-rounder Krunal Pandya, who has impressed during the previous editions of the IPL. The only obstacle Dananjaya may have is the fact that a team could only play a maximum of four overseas players and Mumbai have plenty of star T20 players in Evin Lewis, Kieron Pollard, JP Duminy, Pat Cummins, Mustafizur Rahman, Mitchell McClenaghan and Ben Cutting. 

The ‘slinga’ Malinga has been Mumbai’s Sri Lankan hero for a number of years and it will be tough boots to fill in for the young Akila Dananjaya. He has risen to the occasion for Sri Lanka during the recent past but it will be a totally different experience playing in front of packed houses in very noisy stadiums. Will Akila Dananjaya take over the reins from Lasith Malinga as the new Sri Lankan hero of Mumbai at the end of the 2018 IPL?