The five-time Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians have roped in the services of former fast bowler Vinay Kumar as their talent scout. Kumar was part of Mumbai Indians winning team in the 2015 and 2017 season. The right-arm fast bowler made his IPL debut back in 2008 and scalped 105 wickets in as many matches.
Meanwhile, Vinay Kumar was a consistent performer in the domestic circuit and he also led Karnataka to a couple of Ranji titles. Kumar scalped 504 wickets in his first-class career of 139 matches.
The veteran domestic giant played 31 ODIs, one Test match and nine T20Is for the national team and took a total of 49 wickets across the three formats at the International level.
Vinay had announced his retirement back in February from first-class and International career.
“I am delighted to have Vinay join our talent scout program. Mumbai Indians is established on strong fundamentals of discovering talent and belief in nurturing youth. I am confident Vinay will add value to our ideology and scouting strength,” Akash Ambani, owner of MI, said.
“I am honoured for this opportunity to associate with Mumbai Indians again. Mumbai Indians strive for excellence in every aspect of the game, and scouting talents is undoubtedly their key strength. It’s a new chapter, and personally I reckon it as an opportunity for me to give back to cricket,” Vinay said.
Former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel had served as the talent scout of Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians were placed at the fourth place in the points table before IPL 2021 was postponed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The Rohit Sharma-led team will resume their campaign against three-time champions Chennai Super Kings on 19th September at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.