Ajinkya Rahane is set to captain Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai against Rest of India in the Irani Cup match to be played in Lucknow. This will be Shardul Thakur's return game too, after his surgery from first-class cricket.
All senior players-Shreyas Iyer, Musheer Khan, Shams Mulani, and Tanush Kotian-are likely to play in the game.
As of now, there is no clarity as to whether Sarfaraz Khan would be considered for the game. Sarfaraz has been named in the Indian team for the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh, scheduled to start from September 27. If he does not feature in the playing eleven, the Mumbai Cricket Association could then get the green signal to allow their one-man batter participate in the Irani Cup.
The official announcement of the team is expected tomorrow.
Well, look, Sarfaraz is the only specialist middle-order batsman in the team. Dhruv Jurel is a keeper-batsman and Axar Patel is an all-rounder. What if there is a need for a concussion substitute? But yes, Irani Cup starts on October 1 and traveling from Kanpur to Lucknow even on September 30 won't be a big deal if Test match concludes early.".
It has also been brought into notice that Suryakumar Yadav will be missing from the Irani Cup as he is India's T20 skipper and all-rounder Shivam Dube, who has been an automatic selection for the Indian T20 side, cannot miss the dates, as he is reported to join Gwalior for the first T20I game on October 6, starting October 3.
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