IPL 2023: Royal Challengers Bangalore trade Jason Behrendorff to Mumbai Indians

Australia's left-arm fast bowler Jason Behrendorff will return to Mumbai Indians after Royal Challengers Bangalore traded him ahead of IPL 2023. He was acquired by Royal Challengers at the 2022 auction for his base price of INR 75 lakh but didn't get any game-time.

Behrendorff has been part of the IPL for the last five years but he has spent four of those years on the bench. He was with Mumbai from 2018 to 2020 but got a chance to play only in the 2019 season. That year, he picked up five wickets in as many games at an economy rate of 8.68.

In 2021, Chennai Super Kings drafted him as a replacement for Josh Hazlewood. He did not make an appearance in the first half of the tournament, and Hazlewood returned when the competition resumed in the UAE.

Behrendorff has represented Australia in nine T20Is, picking 7 wickets with a best of 4 for 21. In all, he has 117 wickets in 105 T20s at an economy of 7.41

Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer, Riley Meredith and Daniel Sams are some of the other fast bowlers Mumbai currently have in their squad. The most successful team in IPL's history, Mumbai finished tenth in a ten-team tournament in 2022.

The auction for the 2023 season will take place in Kochi on December 23. It will be a mini auction as opposed to the mega auction ahead of the 2022 edition, when the ten franchises had to rebuild their squads virtually from scratch. In addition to the money left over from their previous auction purse and the value of the players they release, each team will have an additional INR 5 crore (approx. US $607,000) to spend at this auction, making the overall purse INR 95 crore (approx. US $11.5 million).