Mumbai will be without injured pace bowler Dhawal Kulkarni for their Ranji Trophy semi-final against Madhya Pradesh, starting February 13, at Cuttack.
Reigning champions Mumbai, gunning for their 42st Ranji Trophy title, on Wednesday inducted uncapped teenage batsman Prithvi Shaw into their squad for the semi-finals against two-time champions Tamil Nadu to be played at Rajkot from January 1 to 5.
Mumbai's bid to clinch their 41st Ranji Trophy crown, and the first after two seasons, got a significant boost with the availability of fit-again pacer Dhawal Kulkarni for the final against Saurashtra in Pune. Kulkarni missed the semi-final against Madhya Pradesh at Cuttack, after picking up an injury during their quarter-final victory over Jharkhand at Mysuru. Other than his inclusion, the Mumbai selectors have retained the squad that secured their place for their 45th title clash in Cuttack. Significantly, when Mumbai clinched their 40th crown, Saurashtra were their opponents in the 2012-13 season. The five-day final will begin on February 24.
Rohit Sharma has been included in Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai's 15-member squad for the warm-up game against the visiting New Zealand side at New Delhi from September 16-18.
After a cracking century, left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar spun web around Jharkhand batsmen with his off-breaks as heavyweights Mumbai took a step closer towards qualifying for the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy on Thursday. Mumbai ended their first innings on 416 with domestic stalwart Abhishek Nayar scoring 74 off 167 balls with seven boundaries and a six. With useful contributions from wicketkeeper-batsman Sufiyan Shaikh (23) and spinner Iqbal Abdullah (33), Mumbai got more than 100 runs from the last four partnerships. In reply, Jharkhand were reeling at 150 for eight with another 57 runs required to save the follow-on.
In an interesting move, the Mumbai selection committee decided to include 14-year-old Armaan Jaffer in the Ranji Trophy probables list along with his uncle and state team stalwart Wasim Jaffer.
Arjun Tendulkar, son of cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and a left-arm pacer, has been named in the 15-member Mumbai squad for the upcoming 'Bapuna Cup' to be held in Nagpur.
The domestic season-ending five-day Irani Cup game between newly crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the Rest of India, commencing in Mumbai from Sunday, will provide fringe players a good opportunity to stake claims for the national team. The first class match is the last occasion for hopefuls from both ranks to impress the five-member national selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil before attention shifts totally to the T20 format, commencing with the ICC World T20 Championships. With the country expected to play over 15 Test matches post Indian Premier League till the end of next season, this match is the ideal platform for these players to strengthen their claims for the long Test haul. Mumbai, who clinched the Ranji crown for the 41st time last week by defeating Saurashtra by an innings, have a settled combination led by wicket keeper batsman Aditya Tare. They appear to be better prepared than the motley bunch of Rest of India, being led by Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha. However, they would take the Rest of India lightly at their own peril as the latter have a good bowling attack at their command even without originally named Barinder Sran and Nathu Singh who have been injured and replaced by Ankit Rajpoot and Anureet Singh, according to their coach Ashish Kapoor.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Friday
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