Mumbai Indians, the IPL 2019 champions, have added West Indies batsman Sherfane Rutherford to their squad, after trading legspinner Mayank Markande to Delhi Capitals.
Rutherford is known for his big-hitting abilities. Playing for Guyana Amazon Warriors in his debut season of the Caribbean Premier League last year, Rutherford made a mark against Trinbago Knight Riders, smashing a 13-ball 45 with six sixes and a four, in a match-winning partnership with Shimron Hetmyer. His overall run tally in CPL 2018 was 171 runs at a strike rate of 142.5 and he earned a call-up to West Indies' T20I side on the India tour, going on to make his international debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka in December.
Capitals bought Rutherford for INR 2 crore from a base price of INR 40 lakh in the December 2018 auction, and one of the most impactful performances from the 20-year-old came against Royal Challengers Bangalore, when he scored a 13-ball 28 and took the wicket of AB de Villiers with his medium pace.
Markande played only three matches for Mumbai in IPL 2019, after a solid debut season last year where he finished as the team's third-highest wicket-taker, with 15 dismissals in 14 matches. He now joins Amit Mishra, Sandeep Lamichhane and Rahul Tewatia to form a legspinning quartet for Capitals to choose from.
From Mumbai's point of view, young legspinner Rahul Chahar had a breakthrough season in 2019, picking up 13 wickets in 13 games with an economy rate of 6.55, and Markande ended up picking just one wicket and going for plenty - 59 runs in six overs, perhaps making the second leggie surplus to their requirements.