Rajkot: India’s Test & ODI captain Rohit Sharma, star opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and ODI middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer will all not be available for Mumbai’s last league match of the season against Meghalaya, which will start from January 30 at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy in BKC, TOI has learnt.
Allrounder Shivam Dube will also miss that must-win match for the defending Ranji Trophy champions as he has been added to India’s squad for the ongoing home T20I series against England.
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“Rohit, Jaiswal and Iyer are all likely to attend the BCCI’s Naman Annual awards in Mumbai on February 1. Next day (February 2), they are supposed to report for a short camp to Nagpur before the three-match ODI series against England,” a reliable source in the BCCI told this paper.
The India-England ODI series will begin with the first ODI in Nagpur on February 6.
Playing his first Ranji match in a decade, Rohit endured a forgettable outing as he only managed to log scores of six and 28, while Jaiswal made just four and 26 as Mumbai suffered a stunning five-wicket defeat to Jammu & Kashmir at BKC last week.
Iyer was out for scores of just 11 and 17, but overall, with 480 runs in five matches at an average of 68.57, and two hundreds, he’s been Mumbai’s top run-getter in the Ranji Trophy this season. Dube, meanwhile, was out for a ‘King Pair’ (0 & 0) in the match.
Mumbai, who have 22 points, still have a faint chance to go through to the knockouts. They need to beat Meghalaya, ideally by a bonus point, and hope that Baroda (27 points) would lose outright to J&K at home or concede the first innings lead if the match ends in a draw.
The exit of so many India stars means that in-form talented opener Ayush Mhatre (408 runs in five matches at 45.33 with two centuries), who missed the last match, and allrounder Suryansh Shedge could return to the XI for the key game.
On Sunday, Shedge smashed a 71-ball ton, while Mhatre hit 34-ball fifty for the Mumbai U-23 team against Bihar in a Col CK Nayudu Trophy match. Pragnesh Kanpillewar (177 not out, 195b, 16×4, 4×6) too did well in that match.
