Zubin Bharucha joins Mumbai Indians

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Zubin Bharucha has joined Mumbai Indians as its Director of Performance, switching franchises in a role that will see him work closely with the existing multi-disciplinary leadership group across performance disciplines.

“Zubin will join the current support staff within MI’s highly integrated ecosystem and build on Mumbai Indians’ established approach to delivering sustained excellence in player development,” a statement by MI read on Saturday.

The Hindu understands Bharucha will work alongside former Mumbai teammate Paras Mhambrey, an assistant coach with MI. The duo will be entrusted with the development pathway of Indian youngsters — both male and female — at the franchise’s training facility in Navi Mumbai on a year-long basis.

The appointment adds a former Mumbai opener whose coaching and player-development credentials have been built over more than a decade with Rajasthan Royals. Bharucha was instrumental in setting up and running year-long programmes at the Royals’ academy near Nagpur and played a key role in the development of several Indian youngsters, including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Bharucha’s appointment is the first major change to Mumbai Indians’ support structure following an exhaustive review after the franchise’s disastrous IPL campaign. His mandate, however, extends beyond the immediate needs of the senior side, with the focus firmly on creating and strengthening the pathway for Indian talent within the MI ecosystem.

For MI, Bharucha’s experience in building a structured development programme offers an opportunity to strengthen an area that has increasingly become fragile for a set-up that was instrumental in creating scouting structure and grooming lesser-known talent.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.