Rohit Sharma is all set to feature in the Ranji Trophy for the first time in almost a decade as he was named in the Mumbai squad for their next group stage encounter against Jammu and Kashmir. (More Cricket News)
⭕Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on Monday revealed a star-studded 🔯squad for their next fixture that begins January 23 at MCA-BKC Ground.
Veteran Ajinkya Rahane will be leading the defending champions with Rohit set to feature as well. Young India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal too has been named in the squad alongside Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur among others.
Mumbai squad for J&K Ranji Trophy match
Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit ཧSharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ayush Mhatre, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Hardik Tamore (wk), Akash Anand (wk), Tanush Kotian, Shams Mulani, Himanshu Singh, Sha🅠rdul Thakur, Mohit Awasthi, Sylvester Dsouza, Royston Dias, Karsh Kothari
Apart from Rohit, Rishabh Pant (Delhi), Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra) and Shubman Gill (Punjab) are also set to ෴take part in the respective Ranji Trophy matches of their sides.
The renewed interest of regular India players in Ranji Trophy comes after the BCCI recently made it mandatory for all contracted India players to participate in domestic cricket except when there are fitness issues. The mandate wa𒁃s part of a bigger list of guidelines issued by India's cricket governing body after the disastrous performance in Australia and against New Zealand at home.
"(In) the last 6-7 years, I can at least tell about what has happened with me since I've started playing Test cricket regularly, which is from 2019, you hard✅ly have any time (in hand)," Rohit had told media when asked about the reason for big I✅ndia stars not playing domestic cricket.
"And then, when you play so much international cricket through the 🅘year, you need some time off as well as a cricketer just to refresh, get 🐽your mind right, just to be ready for the upcoming season."
"But we have addressed it now and nobody takes💖 it for granted or anything꧂ like that. It is just based on looking at how one has gone through the season, how much rest he needs.
"Based on all of that, we decide what is going to happen with certain player🦩s. Now it's been made mandatory that if there is time, you have to play domestic cricket,” he said.
