Aditya Tare out of Mumbai's Ranji opener; Suryakumar Yadav to lead the side

What's the story?

Ahead of their first Ranji Trophy encounter against Madhya Pradesh, 41-time Ranji champions Mumbai received a big blow as their skipper Aditya Tare opted to skip the match as he and his wife are expecting a baby.

Tare, whose availability depended on the birth of his child, informed the Mumbai selectors and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) about his decision not to fly to Indore a couple of days before the match.

"I would like to thank the selectors, association and my teammates for understanding my situation and supporting me through it," Tare told Mid-Day.

In case you didn't know...

The second round Ranji Trophy matches will be held across 12 different venues from 14th October and one of the main matches of the round is Madhya Pradesh hosting Mumbai in Indore.

Mumbai are already without some of their star players as the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Balwinder Sandhu and Tushar Deshpande are either busy with their India A/Board President's XI commitments or recovering from respective injuries.

Details

Adding to this, when the Mumbai selectors met to pick the squad, Indian opener Ajinkya Rahane, who is currently holidaying in Seychelles, informed them that he won't be available for the clash.

So, Tare's absence will be a huge miss for the already depleted Mumbai side. In Tare's absence, his deputy, Suryakumar Yadav will captain the side.

Yadav has led the side in the past before he was sacked due to disciplinary reasons.

What's next?

There are few Indian internationals and discarded cricketers who will be in action in the second round. The likes of Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Karun Nair, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Robin Uthappa, Varun Aaron, Parthiv Patel, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, the Pathan brothers, Yuvraj Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Manoj Tiwary, Mohammad Shami and Wriddhiman Saha will come out and play for their respective teams when the matches get underway tomorrow.

Author's Take

Mumbai will be looking to avenge their loss to Gujarat in the final of the previous season and their main aim will be winning their 42nd title. In the absence of a lot of their first-choice players, this is a golden opportunity for the fringe players to make a mark in the Indian domestic circuit.