Take on table-toppers Tamil Nadu in a crucial match; defending champions will miss the services of Ajit Agarkar, Rohit Sharma and Harmeet Singh.
Of all the games that defending Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai have played so far, this one looks the trickiest . They take on Group A toppers Tamil Nadu at the MCA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex from Tuesday. For the record, this is the only venue where Mumbai have registered their sole win this season.
It isn’t going to be any easy for Mumbai who are without Rohit Sharma (on national duty), Harmeet Singh (U-19 Mumbai duty) and Ajit Agarkar (opted out for a minor groin injury). Even Abhishek Nayar was absent at the practice session on Monday morning but skipper Wasim Jaffer wasn’t worried at all. “He wasn’t feeling good so he skipped but he will be ready for the game,” Jaffer confirmed.
Not only Mumbai, Tamil Nadu will also miss the services of their regular skipper Dinesh Karthik and off-spinner R Ashwin, who are in India’s Twenty20 squad against Sri Lanka.
But Karthik’s void would be filled in by the return of Murali Vijay and Subramaniam Badrinath, who too skipped the nets. “This is something we have to live with, players come and go but then we have to maintain our momentum,” said coach WV Raman. Badrinath will replace Karthik as skipper.
On the eve of the crucial tie, both sides sweated it out for two hours. The sound of the willow meeting the five and a half ounce of leather was echoing around the venue amidst the construction work of various commercial sites. Last time around, Mumbai had expressed their displeasure to play at this venue. “The pitch was too slow in the last season, it looks good this time,” explained Jaffer.
Raman’s side will be playing their first game at the venue and he said that it looked like a typical Mumbai wicket. “It will be wet early in the morning and will help the seamers. As the match progresses, it will dry up to help the spinners,” said the former left hander, who once ended the 88-89 first class season with 1018 runs, surpassing Rusi Modi’s 44-year-old record for most runs in a season, then.
Mumbai are placed third with 15 points in Group A. TN lead on 20 while Punjab are placed second also on 15 but have two wins compared to Mumbai’s one. But Jaffer doesn’t want to read too much into it. “It is always a big game when you are playing against the table toppers, but then we are focused on playing four days of good cricket,” said the right-hander, who has already hit two centuries this season.
The Mumbai thinktank will also keep an eye on the Punjab game. Though it isn’t a desperate situation for the holders, this definitely isn’t the way they would want to move to the quarterfinals.
Teams:
Mumbai: W Jaffer (C), A Rahane, O Khanvilkar, S Kukreja, R Powar, U Malvi, D Kulkarni, V Samant, I Abdulla, A Raut, P Waghela, P Naik, S Marathe, A Salvi, A Nayar; Tamil Nadu: S Badrinath (C), M Vijay, C Ganapathy, L Balaji, S Aniruddha, A Karthik, YV Mahesh, A Mukund, S Kumar, R Prasanna, R Srinivas, R Sathish
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