2016-17 Ranji Trophy: Resurgent Tamil Nadu take on champions Mumbai in a mouth-watering clash

Team News

Prithvi Shaw is likely to feature in Mumbai’s playing XI

Both the teams will be without their International stars as TN’s R Ashwin and Murali Vijay are yet to recover from the injuries they sustained during the five-match Test series against England. Skipper Abhinav Mukund, who took the field to bat in the first innings against Karnataka in the quarter-finals due to fever, has completely recovered and is ready to lead his side in the semis.

TN will be expecting their out-of-form batsman Baba Aparajith to regain form and might be asked to open the innings and they may include off-spinner Malolan Rangarajan in the XI instead of opener L Suryaprakash.

On the other hand, Mumbai have a depleted squad as they are missing Rohit Sharma (thigh), Ajinkya Rahane (finger), Dhawan Kulkarni (knee) and Akhil Herwadkar (ankle) due to injuries. The MCA selectors have included teenage opener Prithvi Shaw and the right-hander is expected to make it to the playing XI in the all-important semis.

Possible playing XIs:

Mumbai: Prithvi Shaw, Praful Waghela, Shreyas Iyer, Aditya Tare (captain and WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Siddesh Lad, Abhishek Nayar, Shardul Thakur, Vijay Gohil, Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Tushar Deshpande.

Tamil Nadu: Abhinav Mukund (captain), Baba Aparajith, Kaushik Gandhi, Baba Inderjith, Dinesh Karthick (WK), Vijay Shankar, Malolan Rangarajan, Aswin Crist, Aushik Srinivas, K Vignesh and T Natarajan