“Other franchises were sleeping” - Ravi Ashwin slams other franchises as MI acquire De Kock for base price

Former Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin has praised the Mumbai Indians (MI) team at the auction table for roping in the South African explosive keeper-batter Quinton de Kock at his base price of INR 1 Crore in the IPL 2026 mini-auction on Tuesday, December 16, in Abu Dhabi.

Notably, MI entered the mini-auction with the smallest purse of INR 2.75 Crore. However, they went on to acquire the services of Quinton de Kock, Danish Malewar, Mohammad Izhar, Atharva Ankolekar, and Mayank Rawat.

The five-time IPL champions had already bolstered their squad during the trade window, trading in players like Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur, and Mayank Markande. Speaking exclusively on his YouTube channel, Ashwin lashed out at other franchises for not increasing De Kock’s bidding price when MI started the bid at his base price. 

“I think the Quinton de Kock buy was a good move. I think the other franchises were sleeping on their haunches, and MI snooped it up. I think MI are not sure about the Rickelton opening combination. I think MI are trying to replicate their IPL 2020 championship squad, only Ishan Kishan is not there,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“MI had 2.75 crore, but it was as if they had 27 crore, because they bought so many players. MI already had a winning squad before they went into the IPL auction, and now, after the auction, they look even stronger,” he added.

For the unversed, the South Africa keeper-batter was earlier part of the MI set-up between 2019 and 2021.

Mumbai Indians (MI) full squad for IPL 2026

Allah Ghazanfar*, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch*, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande (T), *Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton*, Shardul Thakur (T), Sherfane Rutherford* (T), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Trent Boult*, Will Jacks*, Quinton de Kock*, Mayank Rawat, Atharva Ankolekar, Mohammad Izhar, Danish Malewar.

*denotes overseas players.

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