Mumbai: Ageing India pacer Zaheer Khan, who performed disappointingly in the just-concluded four-Test series against England, has been included in the Mumbai team for the crucial Ranji Trophy Group A league match, to be played against Madhya Pradesh at Indore from December 22-25.
Zaheer had opted out of the two-match T20 series against England commencing at Pune from Thursday after being omitted for the last Test at Nagpur, which resulted in a draw and provided the visitors with a 2-1 series victory, their first in 28 years, after playing in the first three Tests without much success.
Zaheer would open the bowling for Mumbai, now placed sixth in the league table with 14 points from six games and need to win their last two games in order to nurture any hopes of qualifying for the knockout rounds from the pool, with captain Ajit Agarkar.
39-time champions Mumbai, who are to end their league engagements with a game against Gujarat, would be without their key batsman Ajinjya Rahane who has been picked for the two T20 Internationals against England.
The squad: Ajit Agarkar (Capt), Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan, Nikhil Patil (Jr.), Dhawal Kulkarni, Kaustubh Pawar, Abhishek Nayar, Suryakumar Yadav, Hiken Shah, Aditya Tare, Iqbal Abdullah, Javed Khan, Sufiyan Shaikh, Ankit Chavan and Vishal Dabholkar.
Coach: Sulakshan Kulkarni.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 21:24