Kolkata : Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has been included in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy squad for clash against Jammu & Kashmir starting from January 23, 2025. The ‘Hitman’ is set to make comeback in the Red Ball tournament after 10 years.
Rohit, recently, has been suffering from lean patch with Bat in Red Ball Cricket. His Batting and captaincy came under hammer when India got trashed 3-1 in Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and he, scored only 31 runs in 5 innings. He also stepped down from last Test for betterment of Indian team.
After India’s loss in Border-Gavaskar Trophy, BCCI made it mandatory for centrally contracted players to be available for domestic cricket.
The board also stated that if a player is not available for domestic cricket, he needs permission from chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Last week, Rohit Sharma trained alongside the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. He was also seen doing jogging at the BKC Ground days later.
During the squad announcement for the upcoming Champions Trophy, Rohit Sharma spoke about BCCI’s diktat, asking players to represent their state teams in domestic cricket whenever possible.
“In the last six-seven years, if you go back and see our calendar, there hasn’t been a time where we were sitting at home for 45 days and there is cricket going on,” Rohit said.
“You do get that time when you finish the IPL and if there’s nothing happening right after that. But if you see our domestic season, it starts in October – maybe September – and it gets over by February-March. And that is the time India plays a lot of [international] cricket as well. So, guys who are not playing certain formats and have time, and then there is domestic cricket happening, then they will play,” he added.
On other hand, Virat Kohli, another Indian icon will miss Delhi’s Ranji Trophy game against Saurashtra due to neck stiffness. However, he’s likely to feature in the clash against Railways starting from January 30, 2025.
Besides including Rohit Sharma in the 17-member squad, Mumbai added star studded lineup led by Ajinkya Rahane including Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Mumbai squad: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ayush Mhatre, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Hardik Tamore (WK), Akash Anand (WK), Tanush Kotian, Shams Mulani, Himanshu Singh, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Awasthi, Sylvester Dsouza, Royston Dias, Karsh Kothari.
