De Kock and Omarzai among fresh faces for MI New York in MLC 2025

Quinton de Kock and Azmatullah Omerzai are set to headline the new recruits at MI New York this year in their starry international roster. The 32-year-old de Kock, who is now a T20 globetrotter after retiring from the international game last year, will unite with the MI franchise after 4 years. The left-hander previously played a pivotal role in MI's IPL championship run in 2019 and 2020. Having finished at the bottom of the table at last year's MLC season, MINY will look for some inspiration from de Kock at the top of the order to kick-start their campaign.

De Kock will be joined by countryman George Linde who has been rewarded with yet another T20 gig with the franchise after his exploits saw MI Cape Town lifting their first-ever SA20 silverware. Linde will have an opportunity to team up with his MI Cape Town team-mate Omarzai, whose stocks in the world game have been on the rise having also been recently named the ODI player of the year. Naveen-ul-Haq is also set to switch allegiances from the Texas Super Kings to MINY, and will add to the Afghan flavor in the upcoming season.

MINY have retained their core in the form of long-term loyalists Keiron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Trent Boult and Rashid Khan. The quartet will yet again form the fulcrum of the MINY unit, like the two previous seasons, for the domestic talent to revolve around. MINY chose to let go of Tim David, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and their wonderkid Dewald Brevis after the franchise's underwhelming returns last year.

To complement the shake-ups in their international contingent, MINY has revamped their domestic talent as well. The franchise roped in Indian domestic powerhouse Agni Chopra, Tejinder Dhillon, Sharad Lumba and Kunwarjeet Singh to add to their batting firepower.

MLC kicks off on June 12 this year with the first set of games set to be played in California at the iconic Coliseum Stadium in what would be MLC's first foray into the West Coast.