Talent Factory: A peek at Mumbai Indians' scouting process

New Delhi: The IPL has evolved over the years, and so has the template of talent identification.

There was a time when mere gut feeling was enough, but into its 18th summer, the popular league now has a method to the madness, which Mumbai Indians have pioneered.

Five-time champions MI have unearthed a plethora of talent, who graduated to the India level and played with distinction, while many lit the IPL stage with their coruscating show. The latest ones are Kerala's Vignesh Puthur and Ashwani Kumar from Punjab.

It is an ode to the scouting system, which most of the other franchises now follo,w but MI certainly remains the pioneer.

The PTI spoke to people, who are aware of MI's scouting and selection method.

It is a big team that works under head coach Mahela Jayawardene, Director of Cricket Rahul Sanghvi and Chief Data Performance Manager Dhananjai CKM (2011 WC winning Indian team's analyst).

These are the men who manage and modify the process.

"This is what the Mumbai Indians are known for. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the scouts of the Mumbai Indians. They have worked very hard. Rahul (Sanghvi, Director of Cricket), DJ with all his stats and the entire scouting team," team owner Nita Ambani said after Puthur and Ashwani became the latest youngsters to catch public imagination.

The PTI takes a look at how MI's scouting process works.

How to pick events for scouting?

There are two parts to it. The one is for the immediate requirement of players, who can be called for trials and, if satisfied, put into the auction pool. The second is talent monitoring, especially at the age-group level, without making a fuss about it.

Thanks to the BCCI, the state-run T20 leagues are proving to be a hub of T20 talent. Vignesh came from KPL (Kerala Premier League) and Ashwani from Shere-e-Punjab T20 League.

But MI's scouts also watch U16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy and Vinoo Mankad Trophy along with U-23 CK Nayudu tournament (Someone like Nehal Wadhera (now with Punjab Kings) was first tracked when he was playing CK Nayudu Trophy). The scouting is not just confined to premier meets like Ranji, Vijay Hazare or Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

How is talent tapped?

Ears to the ground. It is a round-the-year system where a lot of local spotters, who would never come out in public, inform the core team about players, especially at the age-group level.

"There could be a special talent at the U-16 level. The coaches are told to track that player, but without him knowing, so that they do not get nervous. Also, if the word is out, then the purpose of seeing the player improve gets lost. It is done with an idea of where the player would be three years from now," a source, who is aware of the process, said.

Deciding on kind of players needed

This is the most complicated part as the team looks at that particular year's vacancies -- it could be a mystery spinner, a designated finisher or a death overs bowler. Through all the T20 leagues (TNPL, Maharaja KSCA T20, KPL, UP T20, Uttarakhand PL, KPL, DPL) and SMAT, performances are monitored and data is collected.

The MI database is a sizeable one where performances of a few hundred talented players is collated and analysed.

"Ashwani was injured for the last three years, and this year, when he played the Sher-e-Punjab Trophy for Mohali, MI scouts zeroed in on him. The PCA was asked to provide contacts of about four or five specific players who were called for trials. Ashwani was one of them," PCA's operations manager Satwinder Singh informed.

At the auctions, there is no guarantee a team will get the player they had eyes on. So for one slot, say a left-arm pacer, who can bowl in Powerplay, one needs to keep four options in mind after tracking the data provided by the analytics team. But yes, in case of both Vignesh and Ashwani, MI got them at base price (Rs 30 lakh) and it is a fair indication that other scouting teams missed a trick.

Final trials at High Performance Centre

Once scouting is done, the selected players undergo multi-day trials with multiple coaches grading them on various parameters -- match-ups, quick decision-making skills, temperament, power-hitting, and multiple death overs variations.

There are times some talents are acquired from the IPL auction knowing that one possibly can't use them right away as they are not finished products yet. They stay with the team, train, play domestic cricket, the data is collected over two seasons.

Coaches check, if the graph has an upward curve or the player has plateaued, and accordingly, the decisions are taken.

Why has scouting become a round the year process?

A team may acquire talented players, but the auction process is such that teams have to let go players like Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel back in the day and in recent times the likes of Ramandeep (KKR), Nehal (PBKS) or Madhwal (RR), who were picked up by other franchises. Hence, the process of identifying and nurturing fresh talent continues.