Ranji Trophy 2021-22: Ajinkya Rahane to play for Mumbai under Prithvi Shaw's captaincy

Former Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane is all set to play for the Mumbai side in the upcoming Ranji Trophy season and will not be donning the captaincy hat. The 33-year-old has been under a lot of criticism after the South Africa Test series for showing inconsistency over the last two years and is now sent back into Ranji Trophy to regain form. However, Rahane will be playing under young captain Prithvi Shaw, who won the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22.

Rahane’s captaincy for India has been a huge plus with him yet to lose a Test and he has also maintained a 100 per cent record in ODIs. His heroic leadership in Australia was a testimony of his skills when things were not going India’s way and he proved himself as the ideal candidate to replace Virat Kohli in the Indian Test captaincy role until he lost his batting form. However, the upcoming Ranji season will be a great opportunity for him to get some runs under his belt and to hold on to his position on the Indian side.

Ajinkya Rahane has no problem with Prithvi Shaw as the skipper: MCA Official

An MCA official stated that Rahane had been consulted while picking Shaw as the captain alongside the head coach Amol Mazumdar and the selection panel led by Salil Ankola. Also, Rahane will be mentoring the side as well with Mumbai not having the results in Ranji Trophy as they would have liked in the last few years. The official confirmed that Rahane has no issues with playing under Shaw as the captain as the squad is likely to be announced in the next two days.

“Captaincy is not important for someone like Ajinkya, who has achieved what was considered to be impossible for a cricket captain,” an MCA official was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

“He has agreed to play as well as mentor the side and help restore the Mumbai glory in domestic cricket. He has no ego issues over captaincy and has no problem with Shaw as the skipper,” the official added.

Rahane will go under the hammer in IPL 2022 mega auction for a base price of INR 1 Crore and it will be interesting to see if the veteran gets a buyer despite his inconsistent form at the moment.

Squad: Prithvi Shaw (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Sachin Yadav, Aditya Tare (wicket-keeper), Hardik Tamore (wicket-keeper), Shivam Dube, Aman Khan, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, Shashank Attarde, Dhaval Kulkarni, Mohit Awasthi, Prince Badiani, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Dias and Arjun Tendulkar.