Mumbai Ranji player Siddesh Lad is ready to step up and share the responsibility to guide youngsters in the inaugural Ranji Trophy 2017-18 match against Madhya Pradesh. Aditya Tare will lead a depleted Mumbai in the four-day match that will be played at Holkar Stadium, Indore from Saturday. The Mumbai Ranji team was chosen for the first time by the new selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar.
Lad is ready share extra responsibility in the absence of senior players like Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and established top order batsmen Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw.
The team is without regular international players Rohit and Rahane. While Rohit is in the Indian team currently playing T20I series against Australia, Rahane is not part of the team and is on holiday. He is skipping the Ranji match.
The absence of Iyer and Shaw, who are part of India A and Board President’s XI that will take on visiting New Zealand A team and New Zealand XI, has put pressure on senior batters like Tare, vice-captain Surya Kumar Yadav and the reliable Lad to deliver.
“We will miss seniors but we are ready to take responsibility. It is an opportunity for juniors to do well and stand up. They have the talent and potential to do it. We are there to guide newcomers. We hope to start well,” says Lad, who has had a good last couple of seasons with the Mumbai team.
The pace attack is also inexperienced in the absence of Shardul Thakur and Dhawal Kulkarni. Seamers Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Tushar Deshpande are injured,
Kulkarni will turn out for Board President’s XI against the visiting New Zealand side at CCI on October 17 and 19 along with Iyer and Shaw. Thakur, who will be busy with the India A One-dayers against New Zealand ‘A’, too is not available.
Mumbai are playing under a new coach, former India stumper Sameer Dighe. Young seamers Roystan Dias and Minad Manjrekar have received a maiden Mumbai Ranji call-up.
The Mumbai team had training sessions in Nagpur and before that in Karnataka but Lad rued they couldn’t have a full outdoor session.
“Due to rains we trained mostly indoors and didn’t do much outdoor practice. But we did put ourselves in match situations a couple of times at BKC and Khar Gymkhana,” he said. The squad is set to leave for Indore on Wednesday to start their campaign to regain the Ranji Trophy, which they have won a record 41 times.
