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Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shreyas Iyer will miss Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match starting January 30. They’ll attend the BCCI’s Naman Awards and prepare for the ODI series.
Ranji Trophy: Mumbai’s Rohit Sharma against J&K (PTI)
Indian Test captain Rohit Sharma, his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal and senior batter Shreyas Iyer will all reportedly miss Mumbai’s upcoming Ranji Trophy match against Meghalaya. The match will begin on January 30 at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex.
According to The Times of India, which cited an unnamed source, the trio will attend the BCCI’s annual Naman Awards in Mumbai on February 1 before reporting for India’s ODI series against England, which begins on February 6.
“Rohit, Jaiswal and Iyer are all likely to attend the BCCI’s Naman Annual awards in Mumbai on February 1. Next day (February 2), they are supposed to report for a short camp to Nagpur before the three-match ODI series against England,” the source said in the report.
Apart from them, Shivam Dube will also miss the Meghalaya game as he has been called up to India’s T20I squad for the five-match series against England to replace the injured Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Iyer had been playing the Ranji Trophy since the start. But for Rohit and Jaiswal, it was a comeback pushed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s diktat that all international players should feature in domestic cricket as much as possible. Rohit returned to the competition after November 2015.
But both openers failed to impress against Jammu and Kashmir. Rohit scored 3 (19) and 28 (35) in the two innings, whereas Jaiswal could contribute just 4 (8) and 26 (51). The batting collapsed in both innings and had to be saved by all-rounder Shardul Thakur each time. Still, Mumbai lost the match by five wickets.
Mumbai are third in the Elite Group A table with three wins from six matches. Only the top-two teams qualify for the knockouts and Mumbai’s hopes rely on beating Meghalaya, ideally by a bonus point, and hoping that Baroda would either lose to J&K or concede a first innings lead if the match ends in a draw.
Although these three Mumbai stars will miss their match, other Indian internationals are likely to play the round for their states on the same dates. This includes Virat Kohli and KL Rahul who are both likely to feature for Delhi and Karnataka against Railways and Haryana respectively, from January 30.
The duo is expected to join India’s ODI team straight after the matches.