Ranji Trophy 2022: Shivam Dube missed out, Musheer earns maiden senior team call-up

Salil Ankola-led MCA senior selection committee picked a 21-member squad ahead of Ranji Trophy knockouts as Mumbai play Uttarakhand in the quarterfinals from June 6-10 in Bangalore.

Prithvi Shaw will continue to captain the side, with veteran pacer Dhawal Kulkarni leading the attack.  

The selectors have named a pretty similar squad, reposing their faith in young batters like Sarfaraz Khan, Armann Jaffer and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Meanwhile, all-rounder Shivam Dube was ruled out with a shoulder injury, with seamer Arjun Tendulkar, wrist spinner Prashant Solanki, and batter Sachin Yadav dropped and replaced by young batting sensation Musheer Khan, pacer Tushar Deshpande, batter Bhupen Lalwani, Sairaj Patil and Suved Parkar.

Musheer Khan, who will join his elder brother Sarfaraz Khan in the 21-member Mumbai squad, has been making truckloads of runs at every level he played in for the past year. He played a miraculous inning of 267 for Mumbai U25 in the Col CK Nayudu group game against Manipur. 

After putting in a sequence of brilliant performances for the Mumbai U19 team, leading them to the final of the Cooch Behar Trophy, and was awarded the Man of the Tournament for his 670 runs and 32 wickets.

Following his brother's selection in the Mumbai Ranji squad, a delighted Sarfaraz Khan said:

"I'm very proud of my brother. It's one of the happiest days of my life. You know, this year, I had taken two Mumbai Ranji Trophy Don Bradman style Panama caps from the Mumbai team's manager. The way Musheer was slogging it out since the past year, I had a feeling that he would be picked for the Mumbai senior side. One day, someone even asked for that cap in the dressing room, but I turned down his request, saying that I've kept it with me carefully with a lot of hopes and will present it to my brother when he's picked for Mumbai. That dream has come true."

With the injury of Ajinkya Rahane, it is a golden opportunity for middle order batters like Suved Parkar, who finished the recently concluded Col CK Nayudu trophy as the second highest run-scorer of the tournament, having scored 601 runs in six matches at an average of 66.78. 

Squad: Prithvi Shaw (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Bhupen Lalwani, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parkar, Aakarshit Gomel, Aditya Tare, Hardik Tamore, Aman Khan, Sairaj Patil, Shams Mulani, Dhrumil Matkar, Tanush Kotian, Shashank Attarde, Dhaval Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Roystan Dias, Siddharth Raut and Musheer Khan.