Ajinkya Rahane has been appointed captain of Mumbai for the Vijay Hazare Trophy which begins on September 19 in Bengaluru. With the World Cup only nine months away and India still looking to fill gaps in their middle order, the tournament comes at a good time for the 30-year old batsman who was excluded from the squad picked for the Asia Cup.
The former Mumbai captain Aditya Tare keeps his place in the side – and the wicketkeeping gloves – but has not been appointed in any leadership role. The 23-year old Shreyas Iyer has been appointed vice-captain and will also be vying for a place in the Indian one-day side. Batsman Prithvi Shaw, who earned his maiden Test call-up for the fourth and final Tests, has also been included.
In the recently concluded five-match Test series in England, Rahane scored 257 runs in ten innings at an average of 25.70. His two half-centuries came in the Nottingham and Southampton Test where he scored a first-innings 81 and a second-innings 51 respectively. In December 2017, Rahane had been unavailable to play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy knockouts due to national duties for the ODI side during the South Africa tour.
Mumbai squad: Ajinkay Rahane (captain), Shreyas Iyer (vice-capt), Prithvi Shaw, Jay Bista, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dubey, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare, Eknath Kerkar, Akash Parkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shams Mulani, Vijay Gohil, Tushar Deshpande, Roston Dias.