MCA announces 15-member squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018

The 2017-18 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will be the ninth edition of the domestic T20 tournament. The tournament will be played from January 21 to January 27. The advancement of the T20 tournament was because of the IPL auctions to be held on January 27-28. The franchises will get an idea regarding the top players in the tournament and purchase them accordingly.

In 2016, BCCI changed the format of the tournament by scrapping the championship format into a zonal based competition. The new tournament will be divided into two stages – an inter-state one where states within a zone will play T20 matches among themselves, followed by the main inter-zonal one. The Mumbai Cricket Association(MCA) has named a 15 member squad for the West Zone T20 league starting from January 7 in Rajkot.

Aditya Tare to lead

Tare, who was also the captain of the Mumbai side for the Ranji Trophy will lead Mumbai in the T20 tournament. He had quite found his form in this Ranji season as he just scored 3 fifties in the last 10 innings. However, the selectors have stuck with him and Dhawal Kulkarni will be his deputy. Kulkarni has been a regular in the side and a consistent performer for Mumbai.

Mumbai had a disappointing Ranji campaign but Siddesh Lad was the silver lining for them. He scored 652 runs at an average of 59.27. He scored two centuries and three fifties with a famous 71 against Barada where he played for five hours. He must deliver in the T20 tournament for Mumbai to have a chance in the competition. The stakes are even higher this time as good performances can earn him an IPL contract. Mumbai haven’t had a good past record in this tournament and to change that he must be at his best.

Squad: Aditya Tare(captain), Dhawal Kulkarni(vice-captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Siddhesh Lad, Jay Bista, Bravish Shetty, Shashank Singh, Shivam Dube, Khizer Dafedar, Shams Mulani, Tushar Deshpande, Parikshit Valsangkar, Eknath Kerkar and Aakash Parkar.

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