The five-time IPL champions stand at a crucial juncture ahead of the upcoming IPL season.
As franchises stand on the foothill of submitting the release and retention lists ahead of the upcoming IPL season, the attention would be on the factors which would determine the players. One of the factors could be picking players from one’s own sister franchise. The Mumbai Indians (MI) certainly have a chance of doing the same, and can target Connor Esterhuizen from their sister franchise in the SA20. The Protea batter would be one amongst the MI target players ahead of IPL 2026.
So to say, the 24-year-old has not yet made an appearance into the Indian Premier League (IPL), but has shown a lot of potential in his brief career. To add to that, he was a part of the South African A squad that played two unofficial Tests against India A. The former team chased 417 in the second innings of the second Test with Esterhuizen scoring a crucial fifty.
The youngster is not a part of the main South African squad for the two-match Test series against India, but his skills in First-class cricket give some insights into his skill-level. In just 17 appearances, Esterhuizen has scored in excess of 1,000 runs at an average of a staggering 46.09. His First-class numbers already hold two centuries and three fifties under hiss belt.
Having said that, Esterhuizen would be a good name under the MI target players for the IPL 2026 auction. With the franchise already keeping tabs on the youngster, it would do them a world of good to acquire the services of Connor Esterhuizen.
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In his brief career, Esterhuizen has made an appearance in two franchise leagues – namely the SA20 at home, and the ILT20 as well. Though he represents the Mumbai Indians Cape Town in the Protean league, Esterhuizen plays for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) in the ILT20. The youngster holds an impressive record in both leagues till now.
Esterhuizen would be one of the players on the management’s mind for inclusion in the MI target players list for the IPL 2026 season. However, as much as it sounds like a wildcard entry, the franchise will have to give it some thought before going in for the deal. The inclusion of Esterhuizen would impact the balance and combination of the side in multiple ways.
The batting order for the Mumbai Indians is more or less sorted. With Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton at the top of the order (considering the franchise wants to retain Rickelton), the next three to four batting slots are locked. Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Naman Dhir would be certain to fill those four spots in the batting order.
Having said that, the team would have to find a way to include Esterhuizen into the batting order, if they are to play him. Though it looks like a distant possibility currently that the youngster would find a place in the XI to start with, the Mumbai Indians are known for their ability to nurture talent and provide them with the platform at the tight stage. The first step towards doing that would be including him in the MI target players list!
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