The home of the India Bet offices. We all love Mumbai. We won the IPL last year, surely we can't do it again. We can pray I suppose but for some reason it just feels like it may not happen. The Wankhede will be the venue where our defence begins on the 9th April against our neighbours Pune.
But are Pune our real rivals? Or is it Bangalore? The bookmakers have the three teams priced up as the tournament favourites and as usual, the Mumbai Indians stand every chance of taking the tournament. This year doesn't feel vintage though, it doesn't quite hold the sparkle of past years. To win this year Mumbai will need to fight.
They're a well run machine though, no more are the early hiccups and they haven't missed out on the Playoffs since 2009. They would be dangerous to write off.
Batsmen
Well let's kick off with the Captain, Rohit Sharma, not bad, but is Rayudu good enough to open with the big man? It's a tough job opening in the IPL when you have to get runs on the board but if wickets go down then things can get ugly very quickly.
Lendl Simmons is an amazing signing for just 90 lakh and has had an incredible World Cup. How different the auction may have been had it taken place after the World Cup. Where is Joe Root for instance?
With Kieron Pollard, Jos Buttler and Corey Anderson waiting in the wings there may be well when the Wankhede urges for their opener's wickets to be taken. There are big hitters there and you can be sure of some vintage partnerships. Sixes will come thick and fast and any team that loses control of their bowlers may find themselves looking down the barrel of an unchaseable score.
Bowlers
Where is Lasith Malinga? It's difficult to think about the Mumbai Indians without thinking about their leading wicket taker storming down in front of the Sachin Tendulkar stand and pinging down Yorkers at the death of every match. It's a beautiful thing to watch as midnight settles on Mumbai.
Harbhajanis also back and is another icon of this potentially ageing team. He has bowling and batting in him though and is a huge asset when he is hitting the right areas. But you do worry about the depth of the Mumbai bowling line up and is someone like Tim Southee good enough to win Mumbai another title?
Summary
You get the feeling that if anything is going to let this Mumbai side down then it's their bowling. Not having Malinga will be a huge blow and it just feels like once again there is a lot of mediocre bowling that may just leave too much work for the undoubtedly talented Mumbai batting line up to do.
This doesn't feel like Mumbai's year and I'd be tempted to say that they may well find themselves losing a lot more games than they would like to. The image of Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar sat, anxious, fingers on chin, could be a regular one for TV viewers this season.
Mumbai Indians squad for 2016-17
Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ambati Rayudu, Jagadeesha Suchith, Jasprit Bumrah, Parthiv Patel, R Vinay Kumar, Shreyas Gopal, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Unmukt Chand, Akshay Wakhare, Mitchell McClenaghan, Corey Anderson, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard, Marchant de Lange, Lasith Malinga, Jos Buttler, Nathu Singh, Tim Southee, Krunal Pandya, Kishore Pramod Kamath, Deepak Punia, Jitesh Sharma.
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