Sanjay Manjrekar Compares Mumbai Indians To The Australian Team of Early 2000s

Sanjay Manjrekar, the former Indian middle-order batsman, has heaped high praise on the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians following their 5th IPL-title-winning campaign.

Mumbai Indians were absolutely ruthless in IPL 2020 and the gulf between them and the rest of the sides was painfully evident during the summit clash against the Delhi Capitals where they literally sleepwalked their way to victory.

MI has now won four IPL titles in the past six years and given their absolute dominance this season, fans, as well as former cricketers, have been forced to draw a parallel between them and the all-conquering Australian team of the late 90s and early 2000s, where the Ricky Ponting-led team won three World Cups and two Champions Trophies.

The latest to join the bandwagon is Sanjay Manjrekar, according to whom, the major reason behind Mumbai Indians being such a juggernaut in the IPL is the way they scout players, manage auctions, and the manner in which they prepare leading into the competition.

”Mumbai Indians are now looking a bit like how Australia did in the late 1990s and in the 2000s on the international stage, in a different league from the rest. Australia won three World Cups on the trot in that period, MI have won the IPL four times in the last six years,” Sanjay Manjrekar said in his column for Hindustan Times.

”What makes MI tick? I have realised that winning the IPL is dependent first and foremost on your performance off the field, before the tournament starts, in the auction and player trade offs, where MI have become real masters,” he added.

‘To prove my point, let me ask you a question: are you surprised that MI won the title this year? We all knew, before the tournament started, that they had a strong team with no major weakness, a team packed with T20 game changers,” he added.

Sanjay Manjrekar hails ‘selfless’ Mumbai Indians

Manjrekar reckoned that unlike teams like Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians have mastered the art of plugging whatever holes they have in their squad at the auction table besides adding that the selfless nature of each and every player that plays for them-led by their skipper Rohit Sharma is another reason behind their unprecedented success.

”MI do this part brilliantly, plus they have the winning culture rooted now and this embraces every player in their dressing room. Even Trent Boult, a seamer that another franchise did not want, enters the MI dressing room and has the best season ever,” Manjrekar said.

”Captaincy is another key element in T20s and MI have got this one right too. What’s not obviously seen is the selfless approach to everything they do on the ground, the captain leading by example in this regard,” he explained.

”No top order batsman in this team goes out there trying to get a score for himself, they bat for the moment. Ishan Kishan will not be thinking of staying not out in a small run chase; he will look to whack the 3rd ball he faces for a six,” Manjrekar claimed.

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