Mumbai Indians rope in Sherfane Rutherford, trade Mayank Markande to Delhi Capitals
Mayank Markande, who made an impressive IPL debut last year for Mumbai Indians, had played only three matches for the franchise in 2019
ESPNcricinfo staff
31-Jul-2019
BCCI
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.
But they will now have to offload at least one overseas player, with Rutherford's acquisition taking the number up to nine.