Mumbai make one change for final Ranji league game

Champions Mumbai, with their hopes of a place in knockout stage hanging by a slender thread, today made a lone change in the squad to take on Gujarat in their last four-day Ranji Trophy Group A league match scheduled at Valsad from December 30.

Mumbai: Champions Mumbai, with their hopes of a place in knockout stage hanging by a slender thread, on Friday made a lone change in the squad to take on Gujarat in their last four-day Ranji Trophy Group A league match scheduled at Valsad from December 30.

The 40-time winners of the coveted trophy brought in left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah in place of Manish Rao, who did not play a single game, for the eighth round tie that Mumbai have to win to ensure a berth in the quarterfinals. Mumbai lost to Karnataka outright this week for the first time in the long history of the tournament. Early this month, they had a poor outing against minnows Jharkhand, which took first-innings lead though the match ended in a draw at the Wankhede Stadium here. Mumbai are currently third in the league standings with 23 points, same as fourth placed Punjab, and behind leaders Karnataka (32) and second placed Gujarat (26). Squad: Wasim Jaffer (Captain), Aditya Tare (wicketkeeper), Hiken Shah Kaustubh Pawar Suryakumar Yadav Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr.) Vishal Dabholkar Siddhesh Lad, Javed Khan Shardul Thakur, Iqbal Abdullah, Pravin Tambe, Sagar Kerkar, Saurabh Netrawalkar and Subramanian Doraiswamy. Coach: Sulakshan Kulkarni.