MUMBAI: Mumbai's left-arm spinner Shams Mulani on Tuesday replaced injured leg-spinner Mayank Markande in the Rest of India squad for the Irani Cup, which will be held between ROI and 2021-22 Ranji Trophy champions Madhya Pradesh at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior from Wednesday.
As per a BCCI release, Markande "injured his right index finger during training and has been ruled out of the tournament."
Mulani has taken 130 wickets in 26 first-class matches at an average of 23.91, with 10 five-wicket hauls and 8 four-wicket hauls. This season, Mulani, with 46 wickets in 7 games@23.89, was Mumbai's highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy.
Updated ROI squad: Mayank Agarwal (Captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yash Dhull, Baba Indrajith, Upendra Yadav (wk), Atit Sheth, Saurabh Kumar, Harvik Desai, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Chetan Sakariya, Akash Deep, Shams Mulani, Pulkit Narang, Sudip Kumar Gharami
MP drop Ranji-winning captain
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh have dropped their captain Aditya Srivastava, who led them to the Ranji Trophy title when they beat Mumbai in the final at Bangalore in June last year, for the marquee clash due to poor form. In 9 matches this Ranji Trophy season, all Srivastava could manage was 207 runs @14.78. Wicketkeeper Himanshu Mantri will lead the side.
In fact, injuries have forced MP to field a depleted team for the big clash. Key batsmen Rajat Patidar (pain in the heel) and Venkatesh Iyer (pain in the ankle) and seamer Gaurav Yadav are all out injured. “It will provide an opportunity to our youngsters to do well,” coach Chandrakant Pandit told TOI from Gwalior.
