The St Xavier's College ground in Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram is Jalaj Saxena's favourite hunting ground. The off-spinner, who completed 200 first-class wickets for Kerala in their previous Ranji Trophy encounter against Assam in Guwahati, has taken the lion's share of his scalps (97) at this very venue after shifting his allegiance to the state from Madhya Pradesh before the 2016-17 season.
And when Kerala face the might of Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy encounter at this venue from Friday, they will be banking on Jalaj's spin-bowling prowess to upstage the 41-time champions. With the pitch at Thumba being traditionally spin-friendly, Jalaj will need better support from leggie Shreyas Gopal and off-spinner Vaisakh Chandran.
But having a turner could prove to be counter-productive for Kerala as Mumbai also have the bowlers who can thrive on such wickets. Left-arm spinner Shams Mulani is coming fresh from a 10-wicket haul against Andhra and Mumbai have bolstered their attack with a fellow off-spinner in Himanshu Singh.
Though Mumbai achieved two bonus-point victories and are on top of Group B, their batsmen haven't really got going and have failed to convert their starts. The onus will be on skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Bhupen Lalwani and Jay Bista to counter Kerala's spin threat and put runs on the board. Though Shreyas Iyer isn't part of the squad, Shivam Dube, after his batting exploits in the T20 series against Afghanistan, will be linking up with his Mumbai teammates in Thiruvananthapuram and strengthen his team's firepower.
Just like Dube, Kerala's batting will be bolstered by the return of their skipper Sanju Samson. Sachin Baby, Rohan Kunnummal and Krishna Prasad got amongst the runs in the previous game against Assam while wicketkeeper-batter Vishnu Prasad played a crucial knock in the first game against Uttar Pradesh. Having faced sudden batting collapses in the first two matches, the key for Kerala would be to avoid a repeat of that against Mumbai and put enough runs on the board.
