The countdown has begun to the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League with all eyes on the Players Auction in Kolkata on 19 December. The world’s most astute strategists will come together once again to vie for their picks from the 332 cricketers going under the hammer in the 2020 IPL auction in Kolkata.
Defending Champions Mumbai Indians go into the players auctions this year having retained the core of the team that won them a record 4th IPL title in 2019, with some interesting trade-ins including Kiwi seamer Trent Boult, West Indian Sherfance Rutherford and Dhawal Kulkarni.
The defending champions have been the most successful team in the Indian Premier League having had national and international heavyweights like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan and many more ply their trade for the Mumbai franchise.
However that's not the only piece of history Mumbai Indians is known for. The striking pattern for the team over the course of these 12 years has been their consistency in unearthing young talent, nurturing and giving Indian cricket some of the best boys in the business. A lot is attributed to the vision and brand values Mumbai Indians management led by owner Nita Ambani had put in the franchise's working, in the early years of the competition.
MI’s scouting team comprises of John Wright, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Sanghvi, Abey Kuruvilla, TA Sekar and Kiran More and Pravin Amre.
The scouting team works year-long to identify upcoming talent in the country, one of the most noticeable being speedster Jasprit Bumrah. A find of Mumbai Indians' scouting brains, Bumrah has gradually become the backbone of the current Indian bowling line-up and the world's premier bowler across formats.
Hardik Pandya, arguably India's best all-rounder currently, has been a find that the Mumbai Indians setup has found and supported throughout. Elder brother Krunal made his IPL debut with Mumbai Indians in 2016 and has ever since grown on to being a key member of the Indian national limited overs format setup.
Years 2018 and 2019 saw the revelation of two talented leggies - Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar - respectively both of whom impressed one and all, grabbing their national cap post the respective year's campaign. A run machine for Mumbai Indians over the past two seasons, Suryakumar Yadav who played for the franchise in the early years of the IPL has also been knocking on the national selectors' doors.
While these players have donned the national colours, the scouting team identified and inducted numerous talents including India spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal & Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Nathu Singh and Dhawal Kulkarni.
As the curtains go up for the IPL's 2020 campaign on December 19 in Kolkata, it would be interesting to follow the strategy of Mumbai Indians on who would be the new talents the franchise will unearth for them as well as Indian cricket.
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