Rahul Dravid reveals the secret recipe behind Mumbai Indians' continued success in IPL

Mumbai Indians had decimated the competition in the recently concluded IPL 2020 and right from the onset up until the end, they thrashed everyone to win a record-extending fifth IPL title. Legendary former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid has tried to unlock the mystery behind Mumbai’s continued success.

Talking about the same at the virtual launch of a book, Dravid said:

"What MI has done over the last four-five years is that they have maintained a really strong core of high quality players and mix them up by identifying some really good talented players.”

Dravid thus identified two major reasons – not letting go of their strongest players and identifying upcoming talent simultaneously. The former Indian skipper has a lot of weight behind his argument because several other teams in the IPL have paid the price of letting go of their strongest players.

KL Rahul and Chris Gayle – two of the biggest stars of RCB joined KXIP and ever since then, RCB have struggled in the cash-rich league. Another important example is that of the erstwhile Delhi Daredevils – it’s hard to believe that at one point they had the likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, AB de Villiers and David Warner amidst their ranks but let go of them and have failed to win the competition thus far.

Whereas Mumbai Indians have kept Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga since the past so many years which have made a strong base or core for their side.

Dravid, presently Director of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy, further described how Mumbai Indians spotted young talent at a very young age – giving the examples of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan – who have now become world beaters.

"They have been able to spot Jasprit Bumrah or Hardik Pandya at a young age. Then there is Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav. The ability to maintain a core of very experienced senior players -- world class T20 players -- and balance them out with young exciting Indian talents has been the key. They have been able to do that exceptionally well. They have got a good scouting structure in place; a lot of teams are doing it well," concluded Dravid.