Ranji champions look to end Irani drought; blow for ROI as Irfan ruled out.
Mumbai may have won 38 Ranji titles, but when it comes to Irani Trophy they have always struggled. The cricketing powerhouse in the country has not won the title in more than a decade.
The last time Mumbai won the trophy was in 1997-98 under the captaincy of Sanjay Manjrekar. However, the Wasim Jaffer-led team won’t let the opportunity slip from their hands this time when they take on a much-stronger Virender Sehwag’s Rest of India tie to be played at the Vidharbha Cricket Association here from Thursday.
The match will be a test of nerves for Mumbai and an opportunity for fringe players of Rest of India who have been knocking on the doors of the selectors.
In the last few years, it has been the Rest of India side which has been dominating the Irani Trophy. Last year, the Rest achieved a hattrick beating Delhi.
For Jaffer, the task of leading a pack of youngsters, with a couple of senior players like Rohit Sharma, Ramesh Powar and Ajit Agarkar, would be difficult when he takes on the likes of Sehwag, Murali Vijay, S Badrinath, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha.
However, the stylish batsman is confident. “We played with a young lot last year and won the Ranji Trophy. We won’t have the services of Amol, Sairaj, Sachin, Zaheer and Abhishek and you can’t complain of the absence of Zaheer Khan and Sachin Tendulkar. But this is the right time for the young guns to make a mark by performing here,” Jaffer said.
Sehwag, who has been out of the senior team due to a shoulder injury he suffered during the second edition of Indian Premier League, will be playing his first big match after a long break. The Delhi batsman had some light batting session at the nets on Wednesday.
The Rest of India suffered a blow as all-rounder Irfan Pathan was ruled out of the tie due to injury.
Squads: Mumbai: W Jaffer (Captain), A Agarkar, R Sharma, R Powar, S Kukreja, A Rahane, S Marathe, P Naik, O Khanvilkar, V Samant, I Abdullah, D Kulkarni, R Shaikh, S Netravalkar, M Hussain
Rest of India: V Sehwag (Captain), S Badrinath, R Jadeja, K Jadhav, U Kaul, M Vijay, A Mukund, M Tiwary, W Saha, M Patel, Sreesanth, S Tyagi, P Ojha, B Kumar
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