Salute the skipper

Skipper Ajinkya Rahane after Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy win at Wankhede on Thursday. Pic/Atul Kamble

I never thought Mumbai will win this season's Ranji Trophy. There were strong reasons for my pessimism.

When I saw them in the Buchi Babu tournament, they looked out of sorts. That apart, they didn't perform well in the white-ball tournaments.

In the Ranji Trophy too, they were struggling in the batting department, especially the top-order. Mumbai were in a comparatively weaker group in the league phase, so it wasn't a difficult task to qualify. Yet, they lost to Uttar Pradesh at Wankhede.

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There were three major factors which led to Mumbai's 42nd Ranji Trophy triumph. Shivam Dubey and the contribution of the lower order was an important one in my book.

The availability of Shardul Thakur is another key reason and the shrewd captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane. Mumbai were fortunate to have him for the entire season.

Calm and composed Salvi

Though his own performance till the final was poor, he led brilliantly, marshalling his troops well in the right kind of company in Omkar Salvi as head coach, who is always calm and composed.

When you have such a personality as a captain, a coach's job becomes easier. The coach is left with no doubt that the captain will do his job perfectly on the field and lead by example. I have played with such captains. Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar are prime examples. When in charge, they took all on-field decisions. Sanjay as captain in our victorious 1996-97 season, was a father figure in the dressing room and got the best out of every player.

Back in 1993-94

Ravi in 1993-94 was brilliant as well. He had the task of breaking Mumbai's eight-season Ranji title drought. And he did it by leading the team in the knockouts when season captain Sachin Tendulkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Vinod Kambli and Salil Ankola were away on India duty. What stood out with Ravi was his aura and his habit of making players feel seven feet tall.

Similarly, Ajinkya extracted the maximum from his resources. His bowling changes, field placements, workload management and man management were excellent. His captaincy reminded me of Ravi and Sanjay and it's no surprise that he has joined them in the band of Ranji Trophy-winning captains.

Former Mumbai coach and present TN coach Sulakshan Kulkarni, was part of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy-winning teams in 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1996-97