Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw included in Mumbai squad for their Ranji Trophy opener

After the extravaganza of white-ball tournaments like the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, it is now time for India’s premier First-Class competition- Ranji Trophy to take the centre stage. The premier four-day competition is set to commence from December 09 and the state associations have started to announce their respective squads. The latest to join the bandwagon is the most successful team in the history of the Ranji Trophy- Mumbai. 

The Milind Rege-led-ad-hoc selection panel, on Monday, announced the squad for their tournament opener against Baroda. The Suryakumar Yadav-led has been bolstered by the addition of Test specialist and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and swashbuckling teenage sensation Prithvi Shaw.

This Ranji Trophy season will provide an excellent opportunity for Rahane to stay in the groove and have enough game time behind him, considering the fact that India will only play a Test match until next February during their tour of New Zealand.

Shaw, on the other hand, made a successful comeback to competitive cricket after having served his backdated suspension for consuming a banned substance and will look to continue his seamless return to the set-up and push his credentials forward to regain his spot in the Test side.

Mumbai will hope to shrug off the horrors of the last season

Apart from Shaw and Rahane, the squad consists of usual prospects like Shams Mulani, Shubham Ranjane, Jay Bista, Shardul Thakur and Dhawal Kulkarni. Shreyas Iyer and all-rounder Shivam Dube will miss Mumbai’s tournament opener against Baroda since they will be on national duty, taking part in the three-match Twenty20 International series against the West Indies. 

Mumbai’s leading run-scorer in the 2018 campaign, Siddhesh Lad (652 runs at 46.57 with two hundred and four half-centuries) will also miss the season opener as he is set to get married on Friday. The 41-time Ranji champions had an abysmal season in 2018 where they could manage just a solitary win in eight games and will hope to shrug off the disappointment and start from scratch. In the ongoing season too, Mumbai failed to qualify for the finals in both the 50-over and T20 domestic competitions.

Mumbai’s squad:

 Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Aditya Tare (Vice Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Jay Bista, Shubham Ranjane, Akash Parkar, Sarfaraz Khan, Shams Mulani, Vinayak Bhoir, Shashank Attarde, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni and Eknath Kerkar.