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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Gaurav Gupta | TNN

Mumbai call up Saxena, Naik, Pawar for Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts

MUMBAI: Mumbai have called up in-form opener Divyaansh Saxena, left-arm spinning allrounder Sujit Naik and ‘keeper-bat Prasad Pawar into their squad as replacements for Sarfaraz Khan and Yashasvi Jaiswal for the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Ahmedabad. Mumbai play Uttar Pradesh in the pre-quarterfinal on Saturday.

This is a maiden Mumbai senior team call-up for the talented Divyaansh, who earned his berth in the senior team due to a fine show for Mumbai in the Under-25 State A Trophy (One-dayers) at Rajkot. Picked as Jaiswal’s replacement, the left-hander is currently the top run-getter (264 runs, including 2 centuries (116 vs Orissa & 148 vs Rajasthan) in 3 games, average: 132.00) in that tournament. Before this, the youngster had stroked 3 consecutive centuries in local cricket for Dadar Union-one in the Kanga League and 2 in the Purshottam Shield. In addition to his batting skills, he is ambidextrous- he can bowl with both his hands!

Divyaansh the second-highest run-getter for India in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa in February 2020 after fellow Mumbaikar Yashasvi Jaiswal-scoring 150 runs in five games- with fifties against Pakistan and New Zealand. He had also scored a hundred against South Africa in a ‘youth test.’ However, the 21-year-old seemed to have been fading since then, before coming under the tutelage of Jwala Singh (he was also the coach of Jaiswal) in February this year.

“I’d give credit to Jwala sir for my recent run with the bat. He has worked a lot on my game and mindset. He made me practice a lot at his academies in Kalina and Thane, and that really helped” Saxena, who was on his way to Ahmedabad from Rajkot, told TOI.

“Divayansh been scoring heavily in the BCCI’s Under-25 age group cricket. Sujit has been doing well in the practice games. He can score quickly, and is a brilliant fielder. Pawar can come as substitute ‘keeper if Hardik Tamore gets injured, so he replaces Sarfaraz in that sense,” a source said.

Leg-spinning allrounder Khizar Dafedar, meanwhile, has replaced Saxena in the Mumbai under-25 squad.

No live telecast

Meanwhile, much to the disappointment of the Mumbai fans, there'll be no live telecast of the Mumbai versus UP pre-quarterfinal, as it will be held at Ground B of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Karnataka versus Jharkhand pre-quarterfinal, which will be played in the main stadium, will be telecast live on Star Sports.

Prize distribution function on Jan 6 in BKC

The Mumbai Cricket Association will hold its annual prize distribution function for all the pending years on January 6, 2023, at its facility in BKC. The MCA also stated that it will develop and launch its mobile app “at the earliest.” In some good news for clubs at these maidans, the association has said that the Ringwell work at the Azad and Oval maidans will be completed immediately.

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