SPO-RANJI-MUMBAI PREVIEW

Domestic giants Mumbai will be

eyeing their maiden win of this Ranji Trophy season, when they

take on Gujarat in an Elite Group A game here Wednesday.

41-times Ranji champions Mumbai has played two games

this season -- one against Railways in New Delhi and another

against Karnataka in Belagavi -- and both the games ended in a

draw.

While Mumbai took the first innings lead against

Railways and grabbed three points, they settled for a point

against Karnataka after conceding the first innings lead.

Thus when the players led by pacer Dhawal Kulkarni

take the field at their home turf -- the Wankhede Stadium --

they are expected to strive for an outright win.

Despite the absence of key players like Rohit Sharma,

Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer, who are on

national duty, Munbai still have depth in their batting.

For the hosts, openers Akhil Herwadkar and Jay Bista,

'crisis man' Siddesh Lad and experinced duo of wicket-keeper

batsman Aditya Tare and Surya Kumar Yadav -- need to fire big.

Young batsman Armaan Jaffer, who is making a comeback

to the Ranji Trophy squad after hitting an triple hundred in

U23 match, will be looking to make most of the opportunity, if

he given a chance in the final elevan.

Mumbai coach Vinayak Samant would be pleased with the

performance of all-rounder Shivam Dube, who is among runs and

also taking wickets.

Dube's role will be crucial and he would like to

continue from where he left in Belgavi. The medium-pacer

picked seven wickets in the first essay.

On the bowling front, Mumbai have a potent attack with

likes of Dhawal and medium pacer Tushar Deshpande and spinners

Karsh Kothari and Dhurmil Matkar.

On the other hand, Gujarat, who tasted victory in

their first game against Baroda, will also be looking to get

back to winning ways.

In their opening match of the season, Gujarat thrashed

Baroda by nine wickets, but then settled for 2 consecutive

drwan matches, against Chhattisgarh and Saurashtra

respectively.

In other Group A encounters beginning tomorrow,

Chhattisgarh take on reignining champions Vidarbha at Raipur,

Karnataka clash with Maharashtra in Mysuru while Saurashtra

will battle it out against Baroda in Rajkot.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)