Mumbai Indians won a record-extending fifth Indian Premier League title after they defeated Delhi Capitals in the final of IPL 2020 in Dubai by 5 wickets. The franchise became only the second team after Chennai Super Kings to successfully defend the IPL title. MI looked completely dominant this season – not only becoming the first team to reach playoffs, but also finishing at top in the league stage.
India batting legend and current NCA head Rahul Dravid believes the balance of experienced and young players has helped the franchise in IPL.
“One of the reasons behind the success of Mumbai Indians is that they have maintained a core of experienced senior players, who are world class T20 players,” Dravid told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of a “A New Innings”, a book on the IPL and its business model, authored by Badale and Simon Hughes.
“But the critical thing is that they have balanced it out with young exciting Indian talent. It’s due to the fact that there is a good scouting structure in place,” Dravid added.
“In the past the only opportunity that the players got was with their state associations. Now a player from Karnataka can play for Mumbai in the IPL. It’s no longer limited to the state associations,” Dravid further said.
“A good example will be Haryana which has a lot of good spinners like Yuzvendra Chahal, Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav. A player like Rahul Tewatia may not even get that much opportunity in the state T20 teams. In the past it would have limited him but now that is not stopping him from getting noticed. You have eight extra pair of eyes from the IPL teams who are there to see your talent,” he said.
