It is unlikely that Mumbai could have an injured Yashasvi Jaiswal of their ranks, however the resilient defending champions are agency favourites in opposition to Vidarbha within the Ranji Trophy semifinal, starting in Nagpur on Monday (February 17, 2025).
PTI understands that Jaiswal would possibly journey to the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru for additional evaluation of his unspecified damage quickly, as he has been named as a “non-travelling reserve” in India’s Champions Trophy squad.
However the attainable absence of Jaiswal on no account reduces the firepower of Mumbai in a match that’s the repeat of final yr’s closing.
Mumbai have a bunch of stars of their line-up comparable to skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur who can alter the course of the sport on their very own.
However greater than the presence of some acclaimed and achieved gamers, their willpower makes the 42-time champions a staff minimize from completely different material.
On a number of events this season, Mumbai’s top-order malfunctioned however their lower-order batters like Thakur and Tanush Kotian have bailed them out with gritty efforts.
Even within the quarterfinal in opposition to Haryana, they have been tottering at 113 for seven earlier than Shams Mulani and Kotian milked 183 runs for the eighth wicket to rescue Mumbai.
Mumbai would hope that the large weapons will return to run-making methods on the Nagpur pitch that usually sides with batters.
Whereas the tales of such late-order resistance are heart-warming, Mumbai would really like a extra polished effort from their top-order in opposition to Vidarbha, who’re in red-hot kind this season.
They do not have massive names of their bowling line-up, however Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare and Nachiket Bhut have constantly struck for Vidarbha.
In truth, left-arm spinner Dubey is the very best wicket-taker this Ranji season with 59 victims in his bag.
Therefore, Vidarbha might be keen to take advantage of that barely wobbly nature of Mumbai top-order and put them underneath stress early.
Not one of the Mumbai batters determine among the many prime 20 of the very best run-makers this season.
Siddesh Lad (565 runs) is their prime run-aggregator and he’s twenty second on the run-maker’s listing.
In distinction, Vidarbha’s frontline has been in a lot better form this season as Yash Rathod (728 runs) is the fourth-highest run-getter within the chart.
Karun Nair (591) and skipper Akshay Wadkar (588) too have chipped in with necessary runs.
Nevertheless, they want some higher outings from openers Atharva Taide and Dhruv Shorey.
Groups (from):
Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Ayush Mhatre, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Amogh Bhatkal, Suryakumar Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal (injured), Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Akash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Suryansh Shedge, Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Mohit Avasthi, Sylvester D’Souza, Royston Dias, Atharva Ankolekar, Harsh Tanna.
Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (c & wk), Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Yash Kadam, Akshay Wakhare, Aditya Thakare, Darshan Nalkande, Nachiket Bhute, Siddhesh Wath (wk), Yash Thakur, Danish Malewar, Parth Rekhade, Karun Nair, Dhruv Shorey.
Match begins at 9.30 am.
Revealed – February 16, 2025 02:25 pm IST
