The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Mumbai Indians (MI) have signed James Pattinson as a replacement for Lasith Malinga for the IPL 2020. In a press release regarding the same, Mumbai Indians said, “requested unavailability for this season for personal reasons and to be with family back home in Sri Lanka.” Australian Pattinson, the fast bowler, will join the MI squad in Abu Dhabi.
Talking about the same, MI owner, Akash Ambani said, “James is the right fit for us and adds to our pace attack options available at hand especially for the conditions we will play in this season in UAE. Lasith is a legend and a pillar of MI’s strength. There is no denying the fact that we will miss Lasith’s cricketing acumen this season. However, we fully understand Lasith’s need to be in Sri Lanka with his family during this time.”
Lasith Malinga will miss this season's #Dream11IPL with Australian speedster James Pattinson replacing him.
📰 Read more 👇#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #MI https://t.co/ZllfElMS1J
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) September 2, 2020
Malinga, who turned 37 on Friday, is the highest wicket-taker in IPL history with 170 wickets from the 122 game he had played. He famously bowled Mumbai to a victory in the IPL 2019 final, when he dismissed Chennai Super Kings’ Shardul Thakur off the final ball of the match.
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Lasith Malinga scalped as many as 16 wickets in 12 matches last season albeit at a high economy rate of 9.76 runs per over. Mumbai Indians are the only team to have won the IPL title four times. They have won the league in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. The 13th season of the IPL gets underway in the UAE from September 19 and the final will be played on November 10.
Earlier this month, the BCCI had earlier announced the association with a fantasy gaming platform Dream11 for IPL 2020 as the title sponsor, replacing Chinese mobile phone company Vivo. Dream11 had pipped educational technology companies Unacademy and BYJUs to win the rights for a period of four months and 13 days with a bid of ₹222 crores.
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The IPL 2020 was originally scheduled to be commencing from March 29, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
