Follow UsMumbai Indians (MI) have officially announced the signing of World Cup-winning batter Jonny Bairstow as a replacement for Will Jacks, at INR 5.25 crore, on May 20 (Tuesday). The wicketkeeper batter went unsold at the IPL 2025 mega auction earlier last year and was always just an injury away from being drafted into the competition.
Bairstow hasn’t played a whole lot of T20 cricket in the recent time, and last appeared for Joburg Super Kings (JSK) at SA20 2024/25, where he scored 232 runs at a strike rate of 134.10. The English batter last played IPL in 2024 for Punjab Kings, where he was involved in the iconic run-chase against KKR, where he scored 108*.
Not just that, the five-time IPL champions have also signed England’s express pacer Richard Gleeson and Sri Lanka’s middle-order batter Charith Asalanka as replacements for Ryan Rickelton and Corbin Bosch, who will leave after group stage.
All the three replacement players are only going to take part in the playoffs, if Mumbai qualify for it. While the IPL press release hasn’t stated it, it is most likely that MI can’t retain either of the three players for next year, given that the players are just temporary replacements.