A long gap in between Ranji Trophy used to be a regular affair in Indian domestic cricket before the turn of the century. Thanks to the pandemic, the good old days have returned in a way, albeit in a new avatar of playing all the knockouts in the same city.
Two months after sealing its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal berth, Mumbai will resume its quest for silverware at the Alur Cricket Ground 2 on the outskirts of Bengaluru, the IT capital. While Prithvi Shaw & Co. will be hoping to extend its stay in Bengaluru till the last day of the June 26, they will first have to conquer the relatively unknown group from Uttarakhand in the quarterfinal, starting on Monday.
More than being worried about the opposition, Mumbai will have to ensure its combination is sorted before the big stage. With veteran Ajinkya Rahane ruled out due to a hamstring injury, Sarfaraz Khan will be hoping to find support in the middle order he lacked during the league stage in Ahmedabad.
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It will be interesting if either Suved Parkar or Musheer Khan - two of Mumbai’s Col. C. K. Nayudu triumph’s architects - will debut on Monday.
Hardik Tamore, who led the U-25 boys to the title run, will make a strong case to replace veteran Aditya Tare as the ’keeper-batter.
Jaiswal likely in final XI
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made a strong comeback in the IPL’s latter half, is set to get his maiden Ranji game of the season after cooling heels in the league stage. Tushar Deshpande will walk into the side having proven his fitness, resulting in Siddharth Raut being benched.
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Shaw, meanwhile, will be hoping for his former opening partner Jay Bista, now leading Uttarakhand, to be kept in check at the top of the order. Besides Bista, Uttarakhand will be looking up to Robin Bist and Swapnil Singh - the other two professionals - to deliver at the big stage and continue its surprising run from the league stage.
It will be interesting to see if left-arm spinner from both the sides - Mumbai’s Shams Mulani, the highest wicket-taker of the tournament and Mayank Mishra of Uttarakhand who has the best figures in an innings so far this season - will come into play with rain set to make its presence felt all through the game.
- MUMBAI : Prithvi Shaw (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Bhupen Lalwani, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parkar, Aakarshit Gomel, Aditya Tare (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Aman Khan, Sairaj Patil, Shams Mulani, Dhrumil Matkar, Tanush Kotian, Shashank Attarde, Dhawal Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Roystan Dias, Siddharth Raut, Musheer Khan.
- UTTARAKHAND : Jay Bista (c), Dikshanshu Negi, Kunal Chandela, Mayank Mishra, Kamal Singh, Akhil Singh Rawat, Shivam Khurana, Himanshu Bisht, Tanush Gusain, Swapnil Singh, Robin Bist, Nikhil Kohli, Deepak Dhapola, Agrim Tiwari, Akash Madhwal, Arya Sethi, Dipankar Ramola, Ajit Singh Rawat, Deepesh Nailwal, Rajan Kumar.
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