After SMAT triumph, Hazare Trophy on Ajinkya Rahane’s task sheet

Ajinkya Rahane. Pic/AFP

Ajinkya Rahane, who led Mumbai to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) triumph last week, will now lead the 17-member Mumbai team in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Mumbai's batting hopes are highly dependent on in-form batsmen like Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal along with Rahane, who managed to score 112 runs in eight SMAT matches. Speedster Tushar Deshpande will lead the bowling attack along with left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, off-spinner Tanush Kotian and pacer Mohit Awasthi.

Also read: Ajinkya Rahane & Co eye maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali title against HP today

Mumbai, who won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2020-21 under Shaw's captaincy will be missing Shreyas Iyer as he will be on national duty for the New Zealand and Bangladesh tours. Batsman Suved Parkar, who scored 252 against Uttarakhand in his debut Ranji Trophy quarters match last June, made a comeback in the Mumbai team for the 50-over tournament. Batsman Armaan Jaffer, offie Shashank Attarde and pacer Sylvester D'Souza, got selected as well.

Mumbai, who are placed in Elite Group ‘E' will start their campaign against Bengal in Ranchi on Saturday.