Ranji Trophy: Dhawal Kulkarni ruled out of season opener

Royston Dias and Deepak Shetty are contenders for travelling to Vadodara as Kulkarni's replacement.

Dhawal Kulkarni is understood to have injured his hamstring during a warm-up ahead of a training session on Wednesday.

Mumbai's woes with pace bowlers' fitness in Ranji Trophy have persisted as seniormost pacer Dhawal Kulkarni, has been ruled out of its season-opener versus Baroda, starting in Vadodara from December 9. Kulkarni, one of Mumbai's three captains during last season's mediocre campaign, is understood to have injured his hamstring during warm-up ahead of the training session at the Mumbai Cricket Association's facility at Bandra-Kurla Complex on Wednesday.

READ: Diana Edulji stumps Farokh Engineer with 'little cricket' talk Last season, each of the lead pace triumvirate - Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande - had broken down at some point during the Ranji campaign, which pegged the team back. Royston Dias and Deepak Shetty are contenders for travelling to Vadodara as Kulkarni's replacement. Despite the setback, Mumbai's squad received a morale-booster as Sachin Tendulkar spent some time with the players during the net session. Tendulkar was seen giving technical inputs to a bunch of players, who listened to him attentively in the presence of coach Vinayak Samant.