Mumbai Indians have announced Allah Ghazanfar's replacement for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Afghanistan's star spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman who has not played cash-rich league since 2021 has joined the MI camp for Rs 2 crores. The franchise suffered a major blow weeks ahead of the upcoming season as their star Afghanistan recruit Allah Ghazanfar was ruled out of the season due to injury. The 18-year-old spinner suffered a fracture in his L4 vertebra during the Zimbabwe tour. He has been ruled out of cricketing action for at least four months.
"Mumbai Indians picked Mujeeb-ur-Rahman as a replacement for Allah Ghazanfar for the upcoming edition of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Allah Ghazanfar is ruled out the season due to an injury. Mujeeb-ur-Rahman – a right-arm off-spinner – has played 19 IPL matches and has 19 IPL wickets against his name. He joins MI for INR 2 Crore," read the statement from IPL's website.
Additionally, MI would post a statement on Instagram to confirm the signing of Mujeeb, who is concentrating on improving his fitness through the game's shortest format and was not considered for the Champions Trophy.
"Mujeeb was one of the youngest ever players to have represented Afghanistan and made an instant impact with the ball leading to an IPL debut at the age of 17. Mujeeb has played over 300 T20 (international and domestic) games taking closer to 330 wickets at an economy of around 6.5. Mumbai Indians wish Ghazanfar a speedy recovery and a warm welcome to Mujeeb into the #OneFamily," read the statement from MI.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman's IPL stats
He was expected to play for the Kolkata Knight Riders last year, but an injury kept him out of the IPL. By the way, Ghazanfar took his spot in the KKR team in 2024. Mujeeb has participated in four IPL seasons thus far. He claimed 14 wickets in 11 games during his first campaign in 2018. He has not participated in a game since the 2021 season and has taken 19 wickets overall in 19 games.
Mumbai Indians' updated full squad for IPL 2025
Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, Krishnan Shrijith, Raj Angad Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Bevon Jacobs, Arjun Tendulkar, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur.