Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar has
been included in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad. The Mumbai Cricket Association
(MCA) senior selection committee, led by former India pacer Salil Ankola,
picked a 20-member squad for the first two Ranji Trophy games against
Maharashtra and Delhi to be played from January 13 in Kolkata.

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“Arjun (Tendulkar) has been bowling well,
unfortunately, he was injured in between but he did well in whatever games he
played thereafter. We have picked a team looking at the future of Mumbai
cricket. Unfortunately Tushar Deshpande, our seamer, is injured but it’s a
promising team. It’s a mixed team where we have picked players from under-19
and also who have been part of the Mumbai team for a few years.” Ankola was
quoted by the Indian Express.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam
Dube are other notable youngsters in the Mumbai squad.

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Arjun Tendulkar was part of the Mumbai
senior team last year too. But he didn’t play any matches as the BCCI couldn’t
conduct four Ranji Trophy matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this
year, despite the rise in COVID-19 cases, BCCI has decided to hold it at
neutral venues.

The Mumbai team had a disastrous white-ball
campaign last season as the team failed to qualify for the Syed Mushtaq Ali and
stood last in Group B of Vijay Hazare Trophy (50 overs). This season the Mumbai
team will be led by Prithvi Shaw. Aditya Tare and Dhaval Kulkarni are among the
experienced players who will play for Mumbai.

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Meanwhile, the MCA selection committee has
dropped Siddhesh Lad while Suryakumar Yadav was not picked as he is likely to be
part of India’s ODI series against South Africa.

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“Unfortunately due to the pandemic,
red-ball cricket couldn’t take place last year but we have tried to cover all
areas. There are a few young players like Prince Badiani, who did well in under
19 for us. We wanted to promote them and see how they do on the big stage. What
we have seen is the players coming from under 19 have performed for the senior
men team too. We are hopeful that the team will do well going ahead,” Ankola
added.

Mumbai squad: Prithvi Shaw (Captain),
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Sachin Yadav,
Aditya Tare (W.K.), Hardik Tamore (W.K.), Shivam Dube, Aman Khan, Shams Mulani,
Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, Shashank Attarde, Dhaval Kulkarni, Mohit
Awasthi, Prince Badiani, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Dias, Arjun Tendulkar.