Ranji Trophy 2024: Prithvi Shaw named in Mumbai's squad for Round 5, set to return after six months

Indian young batting sensation Prithvi Shaw is all set to mark his return to competitive cricket after a six-month layoff as he’s been named in Mumbai’s squad for the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy 2023-24 fixture. The 41-time champions will take on Bengal from Friday, February 02 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Notably, Shaw had been sidelined due to a knee injury which he picked up while playing for Northamptonshire in One Day Cup in August 2023. As a result, he had to undergo surgery in London, followed by three months of rehabilitation. The 24-year-old was recently cleared by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru after a fitness Test.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Shaw was supposed to return earlier but was made to go through higher skill-based workloads and high-intensity mobility drills for three weeks by the NCA medical panel before getting clearance.

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Before getting injured, Shaw was having a golden run in the One Day Cup 2023 being the leading run scorer for his team with 429 runs to his name from four innings at an average of 143 and a phenomenal strike rate of 152.66 with two hundreds.

He registered his highest List A score against Somerset of 244 (153) smashing 28 fours and 11 sixes. The opening batter further scored an unbeaten 125* (76) against Durham to register consecutive hundreds. The Maharashtra-born cricketer last played for India in a T20I against Sri Lanka in Colombo on July 25, 2021 and was also a part of the squad for the T20I series against New Zealand in January-February 2023.

In the previous season of Ranji Trophy, Shaw scored 595 runs in ten innings including a scintillating knock of 379 off 383 against Assam which is also the second highest score in the tournament’s history. However, apart from his marathon innings, he failed with consistency scoring just one half-century in the other nine innings.

Mumbai are table-toppers in Group B

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He further didn’t have a memorable run in the in IPL 2023 as well, scoring just 106 runs from eight innings which even led to him being dropped from the playing XI. Meanwhile, Mumbai are on top in Group B in Ranji Trophy 2023-24 with three wins from four matches having 20 points to their name and are most likely to make the knockout stages.

Mumbai squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Shivam Dube, Prithvi Shaw, Jay Bista, Bhupen Lalwani, Amogh Bhatkal. Suved Parkar, Prasad Pawar (WK), Hardik Tamore (WK), Suryansh Shedge, Tanush Kotian, Atharva Ankolekar, Aditya Dhumal, Mohit Awasthi, Dhaval Kulkarni, Roystan Dias and Sylvester Dsouza.