Mumbai, Nov 2: Mumbai received a big blow ahead of the 78th season of the Ranji Trophy competition as old warhorse Ajit Agarkar was ruled out of the side’s opening game due to injury.
Mumbai, who will be playing their opening match against Railways in Delhi on November 3, have brought in Murtuza Hussain as a replacement for the pace spearhead. The 25-year-old made his first-class debut in the 2007-‘08 season against Maharashtra and has claimed 18 wickets from six matches.
Mumbai’s wicketkeeper-batsman Sushant Marathe is also unavailable due to injury. The Wasim Jaffer-led former champions will also be missing key batsman Ajinkya Rahane who has been selected in the national side for the first Test against the touring West Indies.
Rahane and Marathe have made way for Prashant Naik and 17-year-old Akhil Herwadkar respectively.
Mumbai squad: Wasim Jaffer (c), Rohit Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Kaustubh Pawar, Nikhil Patil Jr., Surya Kumar Yadav, Akhil Herwadkar, Prashant Naik, Murtuza Hussain, Avishkar Salvi, Omkar Gurav, Iqbal Abdulla, Ankit Chavan, Dhawal Kulkarni and Kshemal Waingankar
