Mumbai: India captain Rohit Sharma will show up in a Ranji Trophy match for the first time in almost a decade after he and rising star Yashasvi Jaiswal were named in Mumbai’s squad for their fixture against Jammu and Kashmir, starting January 23 at MCA-BKC Ground here.
The team will continue to be led by the seasoned Ajinkya Rahane, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) said while announcing the squad on Monday.
Rohit had confirmed his participation for the next round of the Ranji Trophy match on Saturday during a press conference to announce India’s squads for limited-overs series against England and the Champions Trophy next month.
When asked if he would play in the next domestic game for his state team, Rohit replied, “I will”.
Of late there have been questions over Rohit’s form in the longest format after his forgettable outing in his last eight Tests, including against New Zealand at home and against Australia Down Under.
The India skipper had showed up for a training session for Mumbai on January 15 as it became clear after the team’s disastrous tour of Australia that the BCCI has made it mandatory for the players to feature in domestic circuit.
Soon after, Jaiswal too joined the Mumbai camp which trained at the BKC ground as he had a few batting sessions with his domestic team.
The BCCI recently made it mandatory for all contracted India players to participate in domestic cricket except when there are fitness issues.
Rohit had cited a busy schedule with the national team among reasons for not playing domestic cricket.
“(In) the last 6-7 years, I can at least tell about what has happened with me since I’ve started playing Test cricket regularly, which is from 2019, you hardly have any time (in hand),” he told media.
“And then, when you play so much international cricket through the year, you need some time off as well as a cricketer just to refresh, get your mind right, just to be ready for the upcoming season.”
“But we have addressed it now and nobody takes it for granted or anything like that. It is just based on looking at how one has gone through the season, how much rest he needs.
“Based on all of that, we decide what is going to happen with certain players. Now it’s been made mandatory that if there is time, you have to play domestic cricket,” he said.
Mumbai squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ayush Mhatre, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Hardik Tamore (wk), Akash Anand (wk), Tanush Kotian, Shams Mulani, Himanshu Singh, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Awasthi, Sylvester Dsouza, Royston Dias, Karsh Kothari.
