Mumbai Indians are in action mode ahead of the mega auction in the Indian Premier League. The five-time champions have sacked head coach Mark Boucher and replaced him with Mahela Jayawardene, who led the franchise to three titles during his tenure as head of the coaching staff. MI finished last in the previous season despite the availability of all the star players.

Mumbai removed Rohit Sharma from captaincy and Hardik Pandya was given the team’s command. However, this move backfired as fans targeted Hardik for becoming MI skipper and even Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah showed their displeasure against the controversial decision.

In 2022, Mahela became the Global Head of Cricket and worked with different teams of MI across different leagues. Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League, MI New York in the Major League Cricket and MI Emirates in the International League T20 tasted success during Jayawardene’s stint.

Meanwhile, MI owner Akash Ambani spoke about Mahela Jayawardene’s return.

“We are thrilled to bring back Mahela as head coach of Mumbai Indians.

With our other franchises settled, it was time to once again appoint him as the head of MI coaching staff. He was successful with Mumbai Indians and his style worked in our favour. I want to thank Mark Boucher for his services in the previous two seasons. He was an integral part of the franchise,” Akash Ambani said.

Mahela Jayawardene also expressed happiness on his appointment as head coach of Mumbai Indians.

“I have achieved a lot with Mumbai Indians. We created a team of talented players in 2017 and they performed exceptionally well.

We want to follow the same process in 2025 and it is exciting to return. I am looking forward to working with the champion side,” Mahela Jayawardene said.

Jayawardene will finalize the team’s retentions ahead of the mega auction. Franchises can retain maximum of six players.