Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the Mumbai Indians (MI) don’t have many options for change in their squad heading into IPL 2026. However, he also added that Allah Ghazanfar’s likely availability for the next season will resolve the spin-bowling issues they had to face in IPL 2025. With 16 points from 14 games, MI finished fourth after the IPL 2025 league phase as well. They beat the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Eliminator, but faced a loss to the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Qualifier 2, which knocked them out of the tournament as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “I feel there is no scope for change now either. As soon as Allah Ghazanfar gets fit, he will seamlessly fit in, because, at one stage, it seemed like you weren’t using Mitchell Santner properly. You didn’t have that much confidence and you didn’t have a second spin option. Suddenly, towards the end, we felt that they were one spinner short. They weren’t playing Karn Sharma regularly. They were playing Santner but weren’t making him bowl. It means you were missing a gun spinner, and Allah Ghazanfar is one. I feel things will change with him coming in.”

However, Aakash Chopra also said that the Mumbai Indians would want to strengthen their seam-bowling department, stating that Reece Topley needs to be released as well.

“There will be a question for sure whether the squad can be made better. I feel a little more work can be done on fast bowling. They have Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah. Ashwani Kumar did a good job, but they didn’t have a fifth pacer. Reece Topley will have to be released. You will keep Corbin Bosch,” he said.

“I feel they will try to keep Jonny Bairstow as well. You get another option with Ryan Rickelton at the start. If no one retires and everyone continues playing, I don’t feel there is much scope for change. They will try to make the fast-bowling attack slightly stronger from an Indian standpoint. Allah Ghazanfar will change the fortunes of this team,” Aakash Chopra concluded.