After a five-month wait, a new season of the Tata IPL is set to begin on March 26th.

With the addition of two new teams, walk into the new season with a new format in place.

None of that changes MI’s ambition though as we chase a record-extending sixth Tata IPL trophy over the next two months under Rohit Sharma.

MI retained Ro, SKY, Polly and Boom while Ishan Kishan, Anmolpreet Singh and Mayank Markande all returned to the team.

It helped keep our core team together, an important aspect that head coach Mahela Jayawardene paid special heed to.

This time around, the league stages will be held at four venues in Maharashtra - our homeground Wankhede stadium, where we return after two years, the Brabourne stadium, the DY Patil Stadium and the MCA stadium in Pune.

Of these venues, MI have unsurprisingly played the most number of times at the Wankhede, playing 67 matches. We have won 42 matches there and lost 25.

Our record at each of the other three venues are also positive, having won over 70 per cent of our matches at each.

MI will play two league matches each against KKR, RR, DC, LSG and CSK and once against SRH, RCB, PBKS and GT.

We have won more than 50 per cent of our matches against each of the seven old teams, which is a positive record to begin the season with.

The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT) will play in their first Tata IPL. LSG is captained by KL Rahul while GT’s captain is Hardik Pandya - it will be the second team he plays for in the Tata IPL.

With each team building their squads with new players at the mega-auctions for this season, it will be interesting how they shape up, making it an even more exciting season than usual.

MI’s own batters and bowlers make well-rounded units with players for each role while some young players have been added to the squad and have impressed the coaches with their attitude and application in the nets thus far.

We are extremely excited for this intense season to start!

Which game are you looking forward to the most, Paltan?