Mumbai Indians appointed the former cricketer Lasith Malinga as their new bowling coach for the Indian Premier League 2024 season. The legendary Sri Lankan pacer replaces Shane Bond at Mumbai Indians after a two-year stint with the former champions Rajasthan Royals.
Malinga joined Mumbai Indians in 2009 and spent his entire IPL career with them. He won the four IPL titles with Mumbai in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019 and the Champions League T20 in 2011. His first role as a staff came in 2017 when he was appointed as a team mentor in 2018 but returned as a bowler ahead of the 2019 season and won the title again.
He famously bowled the match-winning ball against Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2019 final and then retired from the tournament after 11 years. He took 195 wickets from 139 overall matches played for Mumbai Indians, including 170 wickets in IPL. The 39-year-old pacer joined his former national teammate Kumar Sangakkara at Rajasthan Royals ahead of the 2022 season where they finished as runner-up.
The IPL 2024 is months away but the five-time champions are already started their preparations after another disappointing season. They managed to reach the playoffs of IPL 2023 but were underperforming throughout the tournament. Rohit Sharma-led side finished the season in fourth place with eight wins and lost to Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 fixture.
South African veteran Mark Boucher replaced Mahela Jayawardene as head coach and Kieron Pollard took a batting coach role ahead of the last season. The team's bowling attack struggled for performances without Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer but there were new faces of Akash Madhwal and Arjun Tendulkar surfacing from the Mumbai setup.
Shane Bond arrived at Mumbai Indians in 2015 as a bowling coach and is also head coach at the team's sister franchise MI Emirates in ILT20.
