Mulani has made peace with the long wait.
“I am just trying to continue what I have been doing all these years,” he said on Tuesday at Wankhede Stadium. “[I’m] trying to have a good start because a good start to the season always gets you in a great mindspace to do well for the team, for team Mumbai and India A as well. So my goal is simple: just help the team in batting, bowling, fielding as much as I can.
“I’m really proud to be playing for Mumbai and I enjoy playing because it has a different pressure altogether to keep on performing because of the bench that we have. We have got a very strong bench. And you cannot lack anywhere when we are playing. So, I don’t take any games for granted. That’s what I do. I try to perform in each and every game. And give the best to the team. And yes, the door [to the Indian team] has not opened yet, but I am a patient guy. And I will keep working hard. I will keep putting up performances. And hopefully, one day it opens.”
Mulani is among the most promising spin-bowling allrounders to have risen through the domestic circuit in the last half decade or so. As long as R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were bowling in tandem for India in Tests, it seemed near-impossible for any other fingerspinner to get into the side. Ashwin’s retirement in December 2024 and the injury-related absences of Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja from the odd Test series have opened up space for the next generation, but Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain have got their chances ahead of Mulani.
In the last five full seasons of the Ranji Trophy, Mulani has picked up – in chronological order – 45 wickets at 16.75, 46 at 23.89, 35 at 24.62, 44 at 23.52, and 30 at 26.60, and bagged 16 five-wicket hauls and six ten-wicket match hauls in this period. He has been the picture of consistency and reliability. How does Mulani keep turning up season after season and keeping up his end of the bargain, even if the call doesn’t come?
“I think the surrounding team-mates, everyone supports me and that helps a lot,” he said. “There are times where you feel that I should have gotten a chance on some tour. But it’s human nature, you might get disappointed somewhere. But my job is to keep performing for team Mumbai because I am playing here. And I am proud to do that whenever I can and I will continue doing that.
“I had a word with India A coaches as well, of how to get to the next level. And I keep on talking to our [Mumbai] coaches as well, and trying to improve each and every day.”