IPL 2021: Who is Marco Jansen, Mumbai Indians’ newest acquisition
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Marco Jansen
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians are well known for scouting and nurturing young talents. They groom the youngsters to become world-class players in the future. The best outputs of their system are Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, both came in as unrecognized youngsters to the side. But they are now the heartthrob of the franchise and the Indian team. The latest addition to the list of young players of the Indians is Marco Jansen.
The South African left-arm quick has become the talk of the town after being picked by the defending champions. MI picked Jansen for his base price of 20 lakhs in the recently concluded mini-auction. He was born on May 1, 2000, in Klerksdorp in the North West Province of South Africa. Jansen first came into the radar when he got the opportunity to bowl at the Indian players in the nets during their South African tour in 2017-18.
During the session, the young quick impressed Indian coach Ravi Shastri and captain Virat Kohli. And so he was recalled for another session along with his twin brother. It was during the same time that he made his List A debut for North West Province in the 2017–18 CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge. So far he has picked 16 wickets in 13 List A games but has played only a handful of T20 games so far.
Zaheer Khan praises Marco Jansen
Making his first-class debut in the CSA 3-day Provincial Cup 2018-19, Jansen has played 12 matches so far. In a short first-class career he has 52 wickets to his name at an average of 20.51 and a brilliant strike-rate of 37.8. It is his brilliant first-class numbers that saw him earn his maiden national call-up during South Africa’s tour of Pakistan. Although he couldn’t earn his maiden Test cap, he earned some valuable experience in the subcontinent.
Former India left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan was all praises for the youngster. Zaheer, the director of cricket operations with Mumbai Indians, shares that he was expecting a bidding war for the young pacer.
“The youngster Marco (Jansen) has been a very highly rated bowler in South Africa. We were actually surprised to see him go at such a low price. We were expecting some more bidding around him,” Khan said in an Instagram video.
Apart from his skill with the ball, Jansen is a handy batsman too with two fifties in 21 first-class innings. The rookie pacer was also part of the South Africa U19 team which toured India in January 2019. Hence he also has the experience of playing in India which boosts his chances of making an IPL debut this season.
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Anshuman Mahapatra
(1496 Articles Published)