Mumbai Indians (MI) have made a huge signing before the IPL 2027 season and brought in Zubin Bharucha from Rajasthan Royals (RR). He has joined them as the Director of Performance. Bharucha is credited with spotting the likes of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel and many other RR stars during his long stint with them. He joined the Rajasthan-based franchise before the IPL 2008 season and stayed with them till 2015. He joined Delhi Capitals for IPL 2016 and 2017. Bharucha returned to RR in 2018.

At MI, he will work with the multi-disciplinary leadership group across all performance disciplines. “Zubin Bharucha joins Mumbai Indians as Director of Performance, and will work closely with the current multi-disciplinary leadership group across all performance disciplines within the MI ecosystem,” MI said in their statement.

“He will join the current support staff within the highly integrated MI ecosystem and continue to build on Mumbai Indians’ approach to deliver unparalleled success in player development. Welcome to the Blue and Gold, Zubin!” the statement added.

Bharucha played for Mumbai and Surrey in domestic cricket. He scored 1021 runs in first-class matches. His tally includes three centuries and four half-centuries. He scored 189 runs in 11 List A matches.

Interestingly, Bharucha’s exit from RR comes following the change in their ownership. Laxmi Mittal and Adar Poonawala jointly purchased RR from Manoj Badale for Rs 15,660 crore during IPL 2026.

There are rumours that Hardik Pandya could be on his way out of MI soon. He returned to MI via trade before IPL 2024 and replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain. MI finished in last place in the IPL 2024 points table.

Pandya-led MI made it to the second round of IPL 2025 but crashed out after losing the Qualifier. The five-time IPL Champions finished in the ninth spot in the IPL 2026 table. MI haven’t won an IPL title since 2020.