South Africa wicketkeeper batter Ryan Rickelton is looking forward to sharing the Mumbai Indians dressing room with teammates Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, and he sees that this will be an initial big learning curve for his debut IPL season.
Rickelton played crucial roles for MI Cape Town during the SA20 and made a statement to secure the title winning knock of 33 runs off 15 balls introduced in two different ways with the team.
Mumbai Indians picked him up for his base price of Rs 1 crore at the IPL 2025 auction, held at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“I am quite excited to make my debut in the IPL; really wanted to play in the IPL, and MI is such a powerful and great franchise, so really looking forward to getting down there in a couple of weeks. I wish to get started again!” said Rickelton in an interaction here.
“It is going to be a great experience for me to play in a team with Rohit, Hardik, Jasprit, and everyone; it is a huge opportunity for me. Every time the time comes, I will be ready for it,” the 28-year-old said nascent after grabbing headlines with his whopping 259 scored in the second Test against Pakistan in January this year.
Rickelton emerged as the leading run-scorer of the second season of SA20 last year, in which he accumulated 336 runs from eight matches with a strike rate of 178.72 for the just-concluded edition.
MI Cape Town defeated two-time champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape by 76 runs to clinch their first SA20 title, having finished last in the first two editions.
He attributed his success to the culture established within MI and the support that everyone is receiving from the coaches.
“I have been with this team for three years. The environment has always been conducive. We were a bit disappointed, perhaps for the first two seasons, but this year seems to be flowing quite smoothly,” said Rickleton.
“The second season posed a bit of an adjustment technically and mentally, but this year I felt a bit more seasoned perhaps and had increased expectations. I stayed calmer at the crease and tried to decide at the right time. Sticking to options was a key one,” he concluded.
