Ranji Trophy: Suryakumar Yadav cancels practice session after exclusion from Mumbai's squad

Suryakumar Yadav. Pic/Ashish Raje

Hours before India's current T20 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav was not picked in Mumbai's 16-member Ranji Trophy squad on Monday evening for their opening game against Chandigarh at the Wankhede Stadium from October 11, the hard-hitting batter had specifically scheduled a red-ball practice session at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana for Tuesday morning.

However, when MCA released the list of players, with Suryakumar's name missing, he immediately cancelled this session.

It is learnt that Suryakumar, 36, who led India to the T20 World Cup title with a 96-run win over New Zealand in the final at Ahmedabad last March, had made himself available for this Ranji season. Suryakumar has represented India in one Test, 37 ODIs and 113 T20Is, besides scoring 5,758 runs in 86 first-class matches.

"He [Suryakumar] had informed MCA about his availability when they asked him. He has been training with the red ball for the last one-and-a-half month and had clearly conveyed to MCA that he was available any time. In fact, tomorrow [Tuesday], he had planned a session from 9.30am to 11.30am, followed by a match simulation after lunch at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana. But as soon as he heard about this [his non-selection], he was disappointed and cancelled it," a source told mid-day yesterday.

On the reason for choosing PJ Hindu Gym for his session, the source said: "He chose the PJ ground at Marine Drive to get a feel of the Wankhede-like windy conditions here. He also asked for the preparation of three different pitches at PJ for specific training purposes. He even arranged for six SG red balls for this session. Some of Mumbai's promising bowlers, including pacer Minad Manjrekar, spinners Hitesh Kadam, Ankush Jaiswal and Shreyas Gurav were among a group of 10, besides a few side-armers, that were also expected to take part in his match simulation. Suryakumar has always been committed to Mumbai cricket and wanted to help the team win the Ranji Trophy."

Explaining Suryakumar's omission, Mumbai chief selector Rajesh Pawar told mid-day: "He [Suryakumar] expressed his availability, but he has not played red-ball cricket for the last one-and-a-half year. He will be back in the team after playing some matches. He's a big batsman and will perform; he just needs to get a feel of red-ball cricket in whatever matches he gets to play. We played tournaments in Karnataka and Puducherry, and those who performed there have been selected."

Meanwhile, India Test batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan, have been included in the Siddhesh Lad-led Mumbai squad for the opening fixture.

Mumbai squad
Siddhesh Lad (c), Ayush Mhatre (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Divyansh Saxena, Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parkar, Aakash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Atharva Ankolekar, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Sylvester Dsouza, Onkar Tarmale