Dhawal Kulkarni to lead Mumbai for the first time

09/25/2018

Dhawan Kulkarni has been named as the stand-in skipper of the Mumbai team for the upcoming matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Regular skipper Ajinkya Rahane will miss a few games for his national commitments while Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer will play for the Board President’s XI.

Regular skipper - Rahane left Mumbai on Monday for his commitments with the Indian Team. Rahane is set to play the First Test match against West Indies in Rajkot on October 4 and will hope to replicate his good form from the England tour.

"Dhawal has been bowling really well. He's a focused and disciplined player. He's a senior, experienced player, and I expect Aditya Tare and Suryakumar Yadav (both former captains) to help him out. We're playing well as a unit," Mumbai coach Vinayak Samant told TOI.

Mumbai will also miss in-form batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer for a few games of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Both Shaw and Iyer have been called up to play for the Board President's XI against the touring West Indies side in Baroda in a two-day game from September 28. While Rahane is set to miss more than 2 matches, Shaw and Iyer would only miss the upcoming 2 games against Punjab and Himachal. Like Kulkarni, Shreyas Iyer is supposed to lead once he returns.

Rahane and Iyer have been replaced by opener Akhil Herdwadkar and middle-order batsman Shubham Ranjane. However, no replacement has been announced for Shaw.

After winning their first three games against Baroda, Karnataka and Railways in the Vijay Hazare trophy, Mumbai will face a few challenges as they will miss their top three in-form batsmen.

"For us, the real competition starts now. We'll miss three of our top players, and we play some tough teams from here," Vinayak Samant added.