Mumbai Indians add five uncapped players

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians on Saturday added five cricketers - Apoorva Wankhede, Sujit Nayak, Rahul Shukla, Kuldeep Yadav and Sushant Marathe - to their list of players for the fifth season of Indian Premier League, commencing on April 4.

The MI team management followed performance of many youngsters throughout the domestic circuit this season and zeroed in on this quintet of players following their impressive performance, zeal to learn and passion for the sport, a statement from the IPL franchise said.

While, Wankhede, Nayak, Marathe and Yadav are to don the MI's uniform for the first time, Shukla, who had been part of the team in the third IPL, makes a comeback.

The franchise have already strengthened their team by bringing in Dinesh Karthik and Pragyan Ojha.

19-year-old Wankhede, a promising batsman from Vidharbha, had impressed with his batting technique, ability to score big and quick runs and is an agile fielder.

Nayak has represented Mumbai in C K Nayudu tourney for three years now as a batsman and a left arm orthodox bowler.

Kuldeep Yadav, the youngest of the five at 18, is a left arm wrist spinner and was a notable performer in his first U-19 Cooch Behar season for UP.

MI are seeing their inclusion as a reiteration of their belief in youngsters among whom are Ambati Rayudu, R Sathish, Saurabh Tiwary, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abu Nechim, Surya Kumar Yadav and Aditya Tare, the release said.

Earlier, MI - the 2011 Champions League winners - had strengthened their team by bringing in wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha during the transfer window, while adding Herschelle Gibbs, Mitchell Johnson, Robin Peterson, RP Singh and Thisara Perera through the auction.

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