How Mumbai Indians scout talent and make them into stars

An hour after sunset at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium on Monday, a star burst into the Mumbai Indians skyline. Ashwani Kumar, 23, claimed four wickets against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders to finish with the best figures for an Indian IPL debutant. The son of a farmer with modest means, Ashwani hails from village Jhanjheri near Mohali in Punjab.

It’s a hinterland-to-starlight script made in Bollywood. Except there is a twist. Whereas thousands descend to India’s movie capital nursing superstar ambitions every day, Mumbai Indians take the opposite route. Their scouts travel far and wide, scour thousands of cricketers across obscure leagues, nondescript maidans and small towns around the country to discover their superstars.

Present and former MI captains have doffed their hats to their reputed scout-squad that includes one-time India coach John Wright and former national selectors Kiran More and TA Sekhar. Over the years, the other unseen eyes scanning every corner of the country have belonged of top international stars like Robin Singh, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Vinay Kumar, Paras Mhambrey and Parthiv Patel. Also part of the team is computer analyst CKM Dhananjai and many former MI players, who keep an eye for talent.

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At Wankhede, after the win, MI skipper Hardik Pandya didn’t forget to mention the men who first saw Ashwani. “It’s always a challenge picking one guy here and there, but our scouting team deserves the credit. They spotted Ashwani’s potential early. He had the zip, late swing, a different action. They have gone all over the place and picked up the players,” he said.

Ashwani was spotted by hawk-eyed MI scouts who had travelled to Chandigarh for the Sher-e-Punjab domestic T20 tournament. MI’s other rookier star, left-arm wrist-spinner Vignesh Puthur, who had a three-wicket debut against Chennai Super Kings this season, had caught the eyes of MI talent hunters even before the Malappuram boy was spotted by the Kerala selectors. The other relatively unknown players they have found include Jharkhand wicketkeeper Robin Minz and Allah Ghazanfar, the mystery spinner from Paktia in Afghanistan.

Wide network

The MI talent-mining model matches the elaborate talent-finding methods of European football clubs with the world’s best all-format bowler Jasprit Bumrah easily the biggest find. The list is long — the Pandya brothers, Hardik and Krunal, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Ashwani had been on their radar for the last two seasons. He continued to impress them in his half a dozen appearances for Punjab as well as the Sher-e-Punjab T20 tournament in Chandigarh last year. His knack of nailing yorkers, the southpaw angles of deception, and the disguised variation were proof enough of his game-defining virtues to be offered an MI contract.

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The story of Vignesh traverses the same lane. Before the left-arm wrist-spinner’s three-wicket haul on debut, he was a name that had not even entered the discussion table of Kerala’s selectors. But MI scouts stumbled on him during last year’s Kerala Cricket League tournament in Thiruvananthapuram.

There is a well-monitored process in place that goes into a player with potential making it to the MI playing XI. The scouts have a WhatsApp group where videos of players with spark are posted. Once others give a favourable assessment, the aspirant gets called to Mumbai.

Something similar happened with Vignesh. He was parachuted to Mumbai, where he passed the assessment tests of the coaching staff, before he was made to play in a T20 Invitations Trophy. Later, he was flown to South Africa, where MI have a team, MI Cape Town, in the SA20 league. It was here that the chinaman from Kerala got a chance to interact with the world’s leading spinner, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan.

One of the most successful franchises in the league, MI might splash millions to acquire the services of famous names, but they have developed a robust talent-scouting process that ensures an edge over their competitors in discovering and sculpting high-class talents. It’s a two-column model — a team that blends established, internationally experienced ones with young and outrageously skilled players mined from obscurity.

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The eyes have it

The scouts, thus, make the stars. Rohit Sharma vouched for their often unsung labours in an interview on JioCinema last year. “It is very easy for people to say that it is a superstar team, but there is a lot of hard work behind it. A lot of appreciation has to go to the scouts. Scouts work hard during the off-season while spotting talent, and so many of them have gone on to play for the country. They saw Hardik, Krunal, Bumrah and Axar and brought them here. We turned them into stars,” he explained.

While the job profile is simple — spotting talent — the reality is harder. They work through the year, constantly searching for talent, dissecting not only cricketing skills, but also temperament, attitude and work ethic, gathering information from their teammates, umpires and coaches.

A list of recommendations are filed to the coaches; they continue tracking the endorsed players for a couple of seasons with the data team in tow. For example, middle-order batsman Tilak Varma was watched for three seasons before he was acquired. It is not just the designated scouts, but some of the former players too suggest names when they come across talented cricketers in the region. It was Saurabh Tiwary who endorsed statemate Robin Minz to the franchise.

Not everyone rises to superstardom like Bumrah and Pandya, but the scouts do provide the ‘special ones’ the pedestal to reach the heights they had dreamt of.

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