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India all-rounder Shardul Thakur will take over from Ajinkya Rahane as Mumbai's new captain for Ranji Trophy. This comes after the latter had announced earlier on Thursday that he will be stepping down from the leadership role for Mumbai ahead of the new domestic season. He had also confirmed that he will continue to represent the side as a player.
According to a report by The Indian Express, Thakur has been chosen as Rahane's successor and will be seen leading Mumbai in the upcoming Ranji Trophy. The report further stated that the Mumbai selection committee had taken Rahane's feedback on future captaincy candidates after he had decided to step down from the role.
Thakur has been a key player for Mumbai in the past few seasons of the Ranji Trophy and has contributed immensely to thye team's success in the domestic tournament. Not only did the all-rounder took 35 scalps last season, but also hit 505 runs while batting in the lower-middle order. On top of this, he will also be captaining the West Zone in Duleep Trophy so it makes sense to hand him the leadership role.
Rahane had a successful tenure as skipper
Meanwhile, Mumbai achieved quite a bit of success under the leadership of Rahane as not only did they win the Ranji Trophy after a 7-year gap in 2023/24, but they also won the Irani Cup in the 2024/25 season. The team may be affected with Rahane not acting as the captain, but with him being 37 already, it was time for a new leader to be chosen for the future.
This will be a new experience for Shardul as he hasn't led the side in any tournament before. It reamins to be seen if the all-rounder will be able to maintain his fine form with both the bat and the ball as the team's skipper. His main goal will be to go on and win the Ranji Trophy with Mumbai, the same tournament where the side suffered an 80-run defeat to eventual champions Vidarbha in the semi-final.
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