Dhawal Kulkarni Named Mumbai's Stand-In Captain For Vijay Hazare Trophy

With regular skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas set to leave Mumbai squad for commitments with the Board President’s XI and the national team, veteran pacer Dhawan Kulkarni has been given the responsibility of leading the side in the next two games of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Mumbai have been in superb form in the domestic One-Day tournament. They have won their opening three games against Baroda, Karnataka and Railways. On Monday, their game against Vidarbha was abandoned due to rain. Consequently, both the teams shared the points as Mumbai continued their undefeated streak in the competition.

However, they will have their task cut out when they take on Punjab after a three-day break. They will have to play without three of their key players –  Rahane, Shaw and Iyer.

All the three players were in stunning form for Mumbai. Rahane scored 79*, 148 and 3 in the three games while Shaw amassed 98,60 and 129. On the other hand, Iyer 56*, 110 and 144..

For their next two games, against Punjab) and against Himachal(September 30), Dhawal Kulkarni will be the stand-in captain. Kulkarni will be leading the team for this first time. Iyer is likely to don the captain’s hat when he rejoins the Mumbai squad. The right-handed batsman and Shaw are set to ply their trades for Board President’s XI against the touring West Indies in Baroda, in a two-day game from September 28.

Rahane, on the other hand, will be a part of the Test squad. The Test series starts from October 4 in Rajkot.

Opener Akhil Herdwadkar and middle-order batsman Shubham Ranjane will replace Rahane and Iyer, while no replacement has been announced for Shaw.

“Dhawal has been bowling really well. He’s a focused and disciplined player. He’s a senior, experienced player, and I expect Aditya Tare and Suryakumar Yadav (both former captains) to help him out. We’re playing well as a unit,” Mumbai coach Vinayak Samant told The Times of India.

“For us, the real competition starts now. We’ll miss three of our top players, and we play some tough teams from here,” he added.