Mumbai, Oct 5 (IANS) Ayush Mhatre, who captained India to U-19 World Cup triumph earlier this year, has been appointed vice-captain in Mumbai’s squad for their Ranji Trophy season-opener against Chandigarh, starting on October 11 at the Wankhede Stadium.
In a major development, Suryakumar Yadav, who led India to win the T20 World Cup on home soil earlier this year, has not been included in the squad despite making himself available for selection, as the selectors led by Rajesh Pawar have opted to prioritise youth power in the red-ball format.
Pawar had an hour-long meeting with other selectors, which was also attended by skipper Siddhesh Lad, head coach Omkar Salvi, and cricket advisor, former India cricketer and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar.
Mumbai will also miss seam-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur, who suffered a fracture to his right middle finger during training and is set to miss at least the first two matches. India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has also been named in the squad, boosting the batting unit and giving him valuable match time in preparation for India’s Test series against New Zealand, to be held in November.
Mhatre missed competitive action for almost five months following a hamstring injury during IPL 2026, where he was playing for Chennai Super Kings. Mhatre and Lad, who dislocated his shoulder while playing in the Mumbai T20 league, recently cleared their fitness tests at the BKC indoor facility and even played in the Kanga League to prove their match fitness.
Opener Divyansh Saxena, who was Jaiswal’s teammate in the 2020 Men’s U19 World Cup in South Africa, has also made a comeback to the Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad on the basis of putting out strong performances in the pre-season competitions. Mumbai, the 42-time Ranji Trophy winners, are in Elite Group D in this year’s competition alongside Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Railways, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Mumbai squad: Siddhesh Lad (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ayush Mhatre (vice-captain), Divyaansh Saxena, Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parkar, Aakash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Atharva Ankolekar, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Avasthi, Sylvester Dsouza, and Onkar Tarmale.
–IANS
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