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On Thursday, Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) announced a 20-member squad for the upcoming first two Ranji Trophy matches against Maharashtra and Delhi.
The 41-time Ranji champions are placed in Elite nine-team Group C and start their campaign against Maharastra on January 13. Flamboyant opener Prithvi Shaw was named as captain of the team featuring some familiar domestic stars like Aditya Tare, Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal etc.
Another famous name that featured in the squad was of young all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar, son of legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Notably, Arjun hasn’t yet played any game in the prestigious Ranji Trophy competition.
MCA’s chief selector and former India fast bowler Salil Ankola explained the reason behind Arjun’s selection in the outfit. Ankola said the junior Tendulkar has been bowling pretty well after recovering from the injury, and the team is also focusing on the future of Mumbai cricket.
“Arjun (Tendulkar) has been bowling well, unfortunately, he was injured in between, but he did well in whatever games he played thereafter. We have picked a team looking at the future of Mumbai cricket,” Ankola told Indian Express.
Ankola also mentioned that they have picked a few other young players in the squad due to their performance in the junior circuit.
“Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, red-ball cricket couldn’t take place last year, but we have tried to cover all areas. There are a few young players like Prince Badiani, who did well in under 19 for us. We wanted to promote them and see how they do on the big stage. What we have seen is the players coming from under 19 have performed for the senior men team too. We are hopeful that the team will do well going ahead,” Ankola added.
Here is Mumbai’s squad for the first two Ranji Trophy fixtures:
Prithvi Shaw (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Sachin Yadav, Aditya Tare (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shivam Dube, Aman Khan, Shams Mulan, Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, Shashank Attarde, Dhaval Kulkarni, Mohit Awasthi, Prince Badiani, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Dias and Arjun Tendulkar.
