Delhi are hoping the return of Test players Akash Chopra and Ashish Nehra will boost their chances against reigning champions Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' encounter, beginning in Delhi on Saturday.

Opening batsman Chopra will be back in the team after missing the season opener against Uttar Pradesh following a finger injury he suffered in the second Test against New Zealand at Mohali last month.

Left-arm seamer Nehra's return though is sort of demotion since he joins the team after being dropped from the India one-day squad in the on-going TVS Cup tri-series.

The left-arm seamer went wicketless for 80 runs in his first match, against Australia at Bangalore on Wednesday, after a seven-month injury lay-off.

Nevertheless, the presence of the two experienced players will surely be a huge morale booster for Delhi, who have their task cut out after failing to force a result at Kanpur last week.

Mumbai will go into the match high on confidence following a convincing five-wicket victory over Baroda in their opening match.

The defending champions will be without India international Aavishkar Salvi, but any deficiency in their bowling attack caused by his absence should be compensated by the inclusion of Munaf Patel, who will be making his Ranji Trophy debut.

Patel, who played in the three-day tour match against New Zealand at Vizag, missed the first match as he was allegedly not granted clearance by his state team, Gujarat.

Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit refused to reveal the playing eleven, mainly to deflect some of the media glare on the 22-year-old Patel.

Also returning to the Mumbai team is captain Sairaj Bahutule, who had replaced Anil Kumble in the Indian squad for the tri-series when the latter was forced to opt out of the match following his father's demise.

Having beaten Delhi last year at home, Mumbai enjoy a slight psychological edge, but Pandit viewed the clash as "a new match, involving new teams".

The match will be played at the Jamia Millia Islamia University grounds as the Ferozeshah Kotla is under renovation.

"It looks a good batting wicket," Pandit said about the Jamia track.

The former India wicket-keeper was also not unduly worried about taking on Delhi in the northern winter which has well set in.

"It is going to be a 50-50 game. The team that plays good cricket each day will be the winner," he said.

Teams (from):

Mumbai: Sairaj Bahutule (captain), Nilesh Kulkarni, Vinayak Samant (wk), Wasim Jaffer, Vinayak Mane, Nishit Shetty, Amol Mazumdar, Vinod Kambli, Ramesh Powar, Swapnil Hazare, Munaf Patel, Bhavin Thakkar, Vinit Indulkar, Robin Morris, Rajesh Verma and Viraj Pai.

Delhi: Mithun Minhas (captain), Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Ajay Jadeja, Vijay Dahiya, Rahul Sanghvi, Ashish Nehra, Sarandeep Singh, Amit Bhandari, Kunal Lal, Salil Oberoi, Arun Singh, Varun Kumar, Pradeep Chawla, Sanjay Gill and Rajat Bhatia.