The spotlight will firmly be on Ajinkya Rahane and Sarfaraz Khan when Mumbai take on Goa in their Ranji Trophy Group D encounter at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, from Thursday.
Dropped from India's Test team for the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka after a prolonged poor run, Rahane scored 129 in the first game. The former India vice-captain will look to now capitalize against a modest Goa attack to serve proof that he has found his touch back.
Also in the hunt for yet another big score will be young gun Sarfaraz Khan, who was snubbed by the selectors from the Test team despite a mammoth 275 against Saurashtra in the first game, which capped his heavy-scoring streak in the Ranji Trophy since the 2019-20 season. While chief selector Chetan Sharma spoke about the importance of the Ranji Trophy in the selection presser on Saturday, it did seem strange that the 24-yearold Sarfaraz failed to find a spot despite having scored 1,227 runs - including two double hundreds and one triple hundred - in his last seven Ranji Trophy games.
"I don't have any expectations. I'm playing because I want people to see the results of my hard work," Sarfaraz had told this paper after his latest 'daddy hundred'. A person who witnessed Sarfaraz's epic knock against Saurashtra at the ground, said, "He was toying with the bowling, sweeping and reverse sweeping (Jaydev) Unadkat with him. He's batting at another level right now."
Having been deprived of a victory which could've given them six points after Saurashtra's last-wicket pair of Unadkat and Chetan Sakaria hung on for the last hour, Mumbai will look to strengthen their bowling and make a few changes.
According to sources, off-spinner Tanush Kotian, who scored an unbeaten 50 and took 2-23 in the first innings, but returned figures of 0-109 in the second dig, seamer Siddharth Raut (1-87 in the match) and No. 3 bat Sachin Yadav (19) could be dropped for this game. Kotian might be replaced by leg-spinner Prashant Solanki, who was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for Rs 1. 2 cr recently. Yadav might make way for allrounder Shivam Dube, who was surprisingly dropped for the first game.
Meanwhile, the match will also be a unique experience for ex-Mumbai players, allrounder Shubham Ranjane and 'keeper-bat Eknath Kerkar, who now play for Goa.
