IPL 2025: Rahul Sanghvi, the unsung hero behind MI scouting system

Remember Rahul Sanghvi, the left-arm spinner who had a brief stint with the Indian team at the turn of the new millennium? While the 50-year-old is most likely to fly under the radar among the galacticos who have adorned the Mumbai Indians dugout over the years, he is the key figure behind the awesome reputation that the five-time champions have built about their talent-scouting system.

 A former Delhi player, Sanghvi – who is known to be close to Sachin Tendulkar – had been heading the MI scouting team since the inception of IPL in 2008. While all teams have developed a well-heeled system over the years where the scouts surf across the country for young talents from domestic T20 tournaments, the Mumbai assembly line had been rather jaw-dropping and their scouting system deserves a big hand for it.

Just ponder this: the Pandya brothers, Jasprit Bumrah, Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera and now Vignesh Puthur and left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar in the 2025 edition. If left-arm wrist spinner Vignesh stood out with a three-wicket haul even in a defeat to Chennai Super Kings, left-arm seamer Ashwani rocked the Kolkata Knight Riders batting line-up with a haul of four for 24 with wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey and Andre Russell.

The 23-year-old Ashwini, who made his IPL debut on Monday because skipper Hardik Pandya  decided to play an extra seamer in their fortress at Wankhede, was spotted during the Sher E Punjab T20 Trophy last year. The strongly built Punjab youngster, who had been plying his trade for Punjab since 2019, was spotted by during the Sher E Punjab T20 Trophy last year.

Hailing the MI side after their first win on Monday, Mrs Nita Ambani said: ''I think today I also want to take this opportunity to thank the scouts. They have worked very hard. Rahul (Sangvi, Director of Cricket) is there in the corner. DJ (Dhananjai CKM, Chief Data Performance Manager) with his stats and the entire scouting system.''

How does their scouting system work behind the scenes? There is an impressive array of big names whom MI has invested in to fan out in different parts of the country throughout the year to spot the talents: former New Zealand captain and Indian chief coach John Wright, Kiran More, Abey Kuruvilla, Vinay Kumar and veteran fast bowling coach T.A. Sekar. Their inputs are factored in when the management draws up the wish list of players for the auction table where Sanghvi joins the likes of Mahela Jayawardene as one of the decisionmakers.

Speaking to Star Sports, Aakash Chopra, former Test opener and now a TV pundit lavished praise on the talent-spotting machine of MI. “If I were part of an IPL franchise, I would sit behind the table of Mumbai Indians to see their target list during the auction. I would only bid for players who are on Mumbai Indians’ target. There is no point in doing a lot of hard work.

 “The best way forward is to follow Mumbai Indians and bid for the cricketers they are interested in. Hats off to them for spotting talents. Other franchises have their scouting teams, but Mumbai are ahead of them,” Chopra said.

‘’Credit to Mumbai’s scouts for picking young players. Ashwani showed his talent in the net session and we included him in the playing XI. He is a left-arm seamer and that is also an added advantage. It was wonderful to see how he dismissed Andre Russell and the way he took Quinton de Kock’s catch,’’ gushed skipper Hardik Pandya after MI opened their account in their third game with a eight-wicket win on a red soil wicket with some bounce and carry.

 Sanghvi, had played one Test against Australia in 2001 and 10 ODIs, is also in charge of spotting talents for MI Capetown (SA T20), MI Emirates (IL T20 in Dubai), MI women’s team (WPL) and MI New York in Major League Cricket.