Mumbai bank on Zak in crunch Ranji tie

Hosts Madhya Pradesh take on a star-studded Mumbai in their next Ranji Trophy Group ‘A’ match at the Holkar Stadium here today. Experienced Ajit Agarkar-led Mumbai have star players such as Zaheer Khan and Wasim Jaffer. Besides, the presence of Kaustubh Pawar and Dhaval Kurkarni in the team will strengthen Mumbai’s position.

The visitors, who arrived here on Thursday evening, had a rigorous practice session on Friday afternoon. To enter the knockout round, they need to win their next two matches as they have only 14 points from six games. They are in the sixth position in the points tally.

On the other hand, Madhya Pradesh have earned 20 points from six matches with two outright victories. In their last encounter, the Devendra Bundela-led MP had registered a splendid outright victory over Punjab in Gwalior. “Our players have done an excellent job against Punjab and I hope we will repeat that in Indore too,” said a confident Bundela. Talking about the wicket, Bundela said he would choose to field if he won the toss. As far as MP’s batting is concerned, Bundela, Jalaj Saxena and Naman Ojha are in good form.

Playing at home will be an advantage for MP medium pacers Anand Ranja, Amarjeet Singh and Ishwar Pandey. “There is grass on the wicket and it will definitely help the fast bowlers,” said curator Samandar Singh Chouhan.