The Mumbai Indians (MI) broke a 4-match losing streak in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 by defeating the Gujarat Titans (GT) by 99 runs on April 20. The next very day, the 5-time champions have got a significant boost that’ll improve their play-off qualification chances as Will Jacks joins their squad.
Prolonged break
The English all-rounder was on a personal leave after 4 months of non-stop cricket. Jacks had featured in 4 Test matches, the Ashes, in Australia from December to January. Then he toured Sri Lanka for an ODI and T20I series. This was immediately followed by a month-long T20 World Cup. He was England’s most valuable player in the ICC tournament, where they came within touching distance of reaching the final.
Jacks scored 226 runs and took 9 wickets in 8 matches, earning him four player of the match awards, the most in T20 World Cup history. If not for Sanju Samson‘s consecutive scores of 97*, 89, and 89, Jacks was to get the player of the tournament award. After a tight semifinal bow-out on March 5, Jacks decided to take an extended break. It was expected that he would miss a couple of matches and join MI by early April. But that didn’t happen.
Before the GT match, MI bowling coach Paras Mhambrey had told reporters in Ahmedabad that the all-rounder would join the squad soon. “Will Jacks is expected to join the squad soon,” he’d said. But the same answer was repeated after each game, which didn’t inspire much confidence.
Starts training with MI
Well, Jacks has joined MI at last. According to Cricbuzz, the 27-year-old practiced with the team on April 21 at the Wankhede Stadium. It’s come at a perfect time since MI have just won a match after 3 weeks and are set to face their arch-rivals, the Chennai Super Kings, on April 23 at home.
If Will Jacks plays, who goes out?
However, MI now has a tough decision to make. If Jacks walks into the team, who goes out? Against GT, they played Quinton de Kock, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, and Allah Ghazanfar as the overseas players. Rutherford has performed the best out of the four, but performs the same role as Jacks.
This move will strengthen MI’s bowling department and add another spin option. Also, Jacks has more versatility, as he can open and finish the innings as well. If MI decides to play both, they’ll need to drop one of Santner or Ghazanfar since de Kock is the designated wicketkeeper.
