Mumbai announced their squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season which kicks off on December 13, and the team will be boosted with the inclusion of star India batter Suryakumar Yadav, who decided to skip the ongoing ODI series in Bangladesh. Suryakumar will be available for the second-round game against Hyderabad from December 20 in Mumbai.
He will be joined by the regulars for Mumbai, including Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan and Tushar Deshpande, in the squad of 17 for the opening game against Andhra. Sarfaraz’s brother Musheer Khan, who was selected for the knockouts during the 2021-22 season but didn’t get a game, was also picked.
Reports have also suggested that Dhawal Kulkarni and allrounder Shivam Dube have not recovered from the injuries they picked up before the Vijay Hazare Trophy and therefore were not available for selection. The pace attack will be led by Deshpande, with Mohit Awasthi and left-armer Royston Dias in the team as well.
Leaving the side from last season's competition are Siddhesh Lad and Arjun Tendulkar, both of whom are joining Goa while Aditya Tare has decided to join Uttarakhand.
“Surya has informed us that he will be available for the second Ranji Trophy game. The selection committee today picked the squad for the first Ranji Trophy game (Vs Andhra) which will be led by Ajinkya Rahane,” MCA honorary secretary Ajinkya Naik told The Indian Express.
The Mumbai cricketer has enjoyed a purple patch in T20Is for India in 2022. His brilliant form included two overseas centuries as Suryakumar finished 2022 with 1164 runs averaging 46.56 at a strike rate of 187.43 in 31 outings. Notably, Suryakumar is also a very accomplished player in first-class cricket having amassed 5326 runs from 77 matches averaging 44.01 and a strike rate of 62.28 including a double century, 14 centuries and 26 half-centuries.
He last played in the New Zealand limited overs series, where he also scored his second ton in the second T20I match of the tournament. However, Suryakumar is yet to make is Test debut for India, and with India facing Sri Lanka and then Australia in the Test series, it will be interesting to see whether to batter uses the Ranji trophy as a launchpad for his Test career.
Squad
Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Armaan Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parkar, Hardik Tamore, Prasad Pawar, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Dias, Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Attarde, Musheer Khan
