Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Subramaniam Badrinath believes five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have little to change in their squad in the upcoming 2026 IPL auction. Boasting several Indian international players, MI bounced back after a rough start to their 2025 campaign and qualified for the playoffs.
However, they were undone by a brilliant batting display from Sheyas Iyer in the second qualifier to get knocked out of the competition. Despite their proud overall record, MI have not qualified for the final in each of the last five IPL seasons.
Nevertheless, Badrinath believes MI can consider releasing veteran pacer Deepak Chahar, if that, and retain most of the rest of the side.
"MI are an amazing team. There is nothing to say about them. Maybe they can think about replacing someone like Deepak Chahar. Apart from that, they don't need anyone else. Rohit Sharma, Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Trent Boult, can go on and on. What else does a team need? Even Mitchell Santner and Ryan Rickelton. So they just need another two to three players, and it'll be a gun team.," he said (via Star Sports Instagram handle).
Chahar was one of MI's big-ticket buys in the IPL 2025 auction at ₹9.25 crores. However, the right-arm pacer was inconsistent throughout the season, finishing with 11 wickets in 14 outings at an average of over 34 and an economy of 9.17.
Subramaniam Badrinath hailed MI as a side capable of defeating any of the international T20 teams around the globe. The franchise won five IPL titles from 2013 to 2020, including back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020.
Hardik Pandya took over captaincy from long-time skipper Rohit Sharma ahead of the 2024 season.
"The Mumbai Indians can beat any international T20 team. Give any international team, and the Mumbai Indians can beat them on the day. They don't have to change anything. They can add some bits and pieces players in the auction, but the core team is set," said Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
MI, along with the other nine teams, will submit their final list of released and retained players ahead of the 2026 auction on Saturday, November 15. The auction is expected to take place in the third week of December.