Rohit Sharma, along with several other top India stars like Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, made a return to Ranji Trophy after a considerable gap last week. The decision to play the Ranji Trophy matches, for their respective state teams, came after BCCI’s directive that domestic cricket is a must. However, Rohit Sharma’s return in the match against Jammu and Kashmir was not memorable. He failed to score big and Mumbai lost the match.
Now, according to a report in Times of India, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer will miss defending Ranji Trophy champion Mumbai’s final group-stage clash against Meghalaya starting Thursday. All three players featured in the sixth round of the Elite Group A match for Mumbai against Jammu and Kashmir at the Sharad Pawar Academy Ground in BKC, where the visitors recorded a commanding five-wicket victory. However, none of Mumbai’s India stars, except for Shardul Thakur who scored brilliant knocks of 51 and 119, managed to make a significant impact, as a disciplined Jammu and Kashmir side kept chipping away to wrap up the game inside three days.
The report also said that there is a chance that on February 2 (which will be the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy match), Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are supposed to join the Indian cricket team camp ahead of the ODI series against England starting February 6.
“Rohit, Jaiswal and Iyer are all likely to attend the BCCI’s Naman Annual awards in Mumbai on February 1. Next day (February 2), they are supposed to report for a short camp to Nagpur before the three-match ODI series against England,” the report quoted a source as saying.
Rohit, Jaiswal, and Iyer are all part of the Indian ODI squad for the series against England, scheduled for February 6, 9, and 12, followed by the Champions Trophy. For 23-year-old Jaiswal, this will be his maiden call-up to the national side for ODI cricket A source in the Mumbai Cricket Association confirmed the unavailability of the three players, including Iyer.
“He will join the Indian team,” the source said. The Indian team is currently engaged in a five-match T20I series, leading 2-0, and Iyer will join his teammates to prepare for the upcoming ODIs.
The defeat to Jammu and Kashmir has severely dented the hopes of Mumbai, led by Ajinkya Rahane, of advancing to the quarter-finals. Mumbai will now need to beat Meghalaya by a big margin and hope for favorable results in other matches to keep their quarter-final hopes alive.
With PTI inputs
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