Cricket: Fifteen year old Sidak Singh youngest ever player to be drafted for Mumbai

To boost their dwindling bowling stock, Mumbai selectors have turned to Under-15 player Sidak Singh, by including the left-arm spinner in their squad for the West Zone T20 Championships commencing in Pune on March 24.

Singh, who would be 16 on May 17, thus become the youngest player to be picked for the Mumbai senior side, after Sachin Tendulkar in the 1980's. Varanasi-born Singh took seven wickets for the Mumbai under 16 side against Punjab in the drawn four-day Cooch Behar Trophy final at Mohali, including a five-for in the first innings.

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"His selection was unanimous. He has performed well in under 16 as well as under 19 matches this season," said MCA's joint secretary and selection panel convener Nitin Dalal. Also in the squad are Suryakumar Yadav and Sarfaraz Khan who were issued show cause notices for their unacceptable behaviour by the MCA, to which they had replied with an apology for their conduct.

The Mumbai selection panel is headed by Sandeep Patil and the others in the committee are Milind Rege, Nishit Shetty and Sanjay Patil. Mumbai will play against Baroda on the opening day of the four-day tournament to decide the two qualifiers from the zone, for the inter-zonals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy tournament.

Mumbai squad: Aditya Tare (Captain), Abhishek Nayar, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Akhil Herwadkar, Sarfaraz Khan, Siddharth Chitnis, Shardul Thakur, Prathamesh Dhake, Rohan Raje, Sidak Singh, Pravin Tambe, Abhishek Raut and Shoiab Shaikh.