It's Ravichandran Ashwin's class vs Mumbai's flamboyance

"We see a lot of left-arm spinners in Ranji Trophy, but we normally don't play against genuine off-spinners. We have called a lot of offies to come and bowl at us on the weekend. We're quite well-prepared for it, I think."
—Aditya Tare, Mumbai captain

This particular quote from Tare sums up the kind of challenge the 41-time champions will be facing the next four days at the MCA Academy when they meet a strong Tamil Nadu in their Group C Ranji Trophy encounter.
India's premium spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be at work and the hosts, comprising some superbly talented and young batsmen, have been preparing well for it.

One may have hardly seen such preparations for any particular bowler in domestic cricket, the way Mumbai have done for Ashwin. And why not, the off-spinner is a major threat to the domestic giants in this mouth-watering encounter.

Tamil Nadu has never looked so strong. On paper, they are superior to their opponents with solid mix of youth and experience, a mighty batting attack consisting of Murali Vijay, captain Abhinav Mukund, Baba Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar and Ashwin himself.

However, it is their bowling which is most talked about, thanks to Ashwin.

"A few of us have played him (Ashwin) in the IPL. He played against us in a one-day game two years back. So it's not that we're new to Ashwin. He's obviously a terrific Test bowler. It's going to be a quality contest between Ashwin and out batters," Tare said when asked about the threat Ashwin poses.

The Mumbai-Tamil Nadu games have always been a close affair. Only last year, the last year runners up defeated their opponents in two encounters, first in the league game where they won by 2 wickets, then in the semifinal, which Tare's side won by six wickets.

While Mumbai cannot boast about their bowling like their opponents, they can definitely brag about their batting, which has promising talents such as Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Jay Bista, Akhil Herwadkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad and the experience of Abhishek Nayar and Tare.

"For the last four-five seasons, our top seven has been similar. We've played together for five-six years. We know each other's game inside out.

"And then it's good to have in-form Prithvi Shaw come in with a few good games last season and a 150 in Duleep Trophy this season and also done well for for India A.

"And Jai Bista scored runs. Akhil has matured into terrific opening batsman for us. So, it's a great sign for us going forward," Tare said.