North 24 Parganas (India) correspondent: Legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar has been included in the Ranji Trophy squad for Mumbai Ranji Trophy. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) senior selection committee, led by former India pacer Salil Ankola, picked a 20-member squad for the first two Ranji Trophy games against Maharashtra and Delhi to be played from January 13 in Kolkata.
“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. Unfortunately Tushar Deshpande, our seamer, is injured but it’s a promising team. It’s a mixed team where we have picked players from under-19 and also who have been part of the Mumbai team for a few years.”
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube are other notable names in the Mumbai squad.
Tendulkar Jr was part of the Mumbai senior team last year too. The Indian board couldn’t conduct four Ranji Trophy games due to Covid-19, however, this year, the BCCI has decided to hold it at neutral venues.
The Mumbai team had a disastrous white ball tourney as the team wasn’t able to qualify in Syed Mushtaq Ali and stood last in Group B of Vijay Hazare Trophy (50 overs). The Mumbai team will be led by India opener Prithvi Shaw. The experienced players to feature this season will be Aditya Tare and Dhaval Kulkarni.
The MCA selection committee has dropped Siddhesh Lad while Suryakumar Yadav was not picked as he is likely to be part of India’s ODI series against South Africa.
“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.
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