Ajinkya Rahane To Be Part Of Mumbai Ranji Trophy Squad Captained By Prithvi Shaw
Updated - 07 Feb 2022, 11:23 PM
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Veteran India batter Ajinkya Rahane will play under the leadership of young Prithvi Shaw who was named as the captain of the Mumbai stateside for the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2022 season. The Salil Ankola-led selection committee is expected to announce the squad in a couple of days.
Ajinkya Rahane was recently sacked as the vice-captain of the Indian Test captain ahead of the South Africa Test series at the start of the new year. This came after the ongoing poor run of form with the bat for the Mumbai batter, who failed to come good at home against New Zealand in the one Test he played and then against South Africa as well, where he managed just one fifty in three Tests.
Rahane has a good record as India captain when he stood in for Virat Kohli, captaining the team in six Tests and winning five of them. This includes his spirited leadership in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21 when Virat Kohli came back home after the Adelaide Test humiliation where India was bowled for their lowest Test score ever-36. Then Rahane hit a century in Melbourne to help India draw level the Test series and ultimately win it by breaching the Gabba fortress.
“Captaincy Is Not Important For Someone Like Ajinkya Rahane”: MCA Official On Decision To Make Prithvi Shaw Mumbai Captain
Cricbuzz reported that the decision to retain 22-year-old Prithvi Shaw as the Mumbai team captain for the upcoming Ranji Trophy was taken collectively by the selection panel, coach Amol Muzumdar, and the association, in consultation with Ajinkya Rahane.
“Captaincy is not important for someone like Ajinkya, who has achieved what was considered to be impossible for a cricket captain. He has agreed to play as well as mentor the side and help restore the Mumbai glory in domestic cricket. He has no ego issues over captaincy and has no problem with Shaw as the skipper,” an MCA official told Cricbuzz.
The MCA official further explained that the decision to stick with Shaw was also in view of the fact that the selectors had no knowledge of Rahane’s availability when the squad was first elected in December. Rahane was in South Africa at that time, as the Ranji Trophy was to begin on January 13 as per the original itinerary.
Now that Rahane is available, the think tank of Mumbai cricket subsequently consulted all concerned and decided to retain Prithvi Shaw as captain, who had won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021 as the skipper.
