In a tale of contrasting fortunes at the Sharad Pawar Bandra-Kurla Complex ground on Saturday, Mumbai, chasing the top spot in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season, will return home with confidence, but with one key question lingering – when will Sarfaraz Khan’s bat roar again?
Against the bottom-placed Himachal Pradesh, the Shardul Thakur-led side will hope their star batter finds form, even as they set their eyes on their second win to climb up the Group D standings in the first of two consecutive home matches.
Spotlight on Sarfaraz
The middle-order batter is yet to register a half-century this season, with scores of 42, 32, 1, 15, and 5 not out, and has two matches at home before the domestic season pauses for the white-ball leg.
The 28-year-old, who was not picked for the ongoing India A versus South Africa A multi-day series in Bengaluru, needs a string of big scores against his name to get himself back on the national radar.
Sarfaraz’s teammate Siddesh Lad came out in his defence, stating that every player goes through a lean run, and as a team, they would help him regain his confidence.
“At the end, he is a human being and everyone makes some mistakes. There is always that (rough) patch for big players. If we look at the last 4-5 years, he has consistently scored runs”
“Somewhere, it could be demotivating as a player, but at this time, it is up to us as a team and support staff to lift him up. We know his potential, and if he plays (well), he will play big innings. As a team, we will try to lift his confidence in any way we can,” Lad told the media, ahead of the match, on Friday.
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Lad admitted that the team was happy to see Sarfaraz’s brother Musheer Khan back among the runs. The 20-year-old made 49 and 63 in the drawn game against Rajasthan, and the right-hander hoped he would score bigger runs in the coming matches.
“We didn’t give the outright win. We batted really well in the second inning. Especially Yashasvi and Musheer Khan. (We are) very happy (that) Musheer is back in form. We know he has got the potential to score big runs,” he said.
The 42-time Ranji Trophy champions made one change to their squad ahead of the match, with Ayush Mhatre coming in for Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was picked in India’s squad for the two-Test series against South Africa starting next week.
Mhatre opened the batting for India A in the first multi-day match against South Africa A in Bengaluru, making scores of 65 and 6. The 18-year-old had a modest start to the new season for Mumbai, making 28 and 13 against Jammu & Kashmir in the season opener at Srinagar.
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Vashisht holds key for HP
Himachal Pradesh’s fortunes of getting anything out of this fixture will rely on batter Akash Vashisth, who was one of their few bright sparks in their defeat to Hyderabad.
The left-hander made a century in each innings to help HP reach respectable scores in both innings and is their highest run-getter after three matches, amassing 320 runs in three matches at an average of 106.33.
The Ankush Bains-led side will also hope for pacer Vaibhav Arora to step up against a strong Mumbai batting line-up. The 27-year-old has taken four-wicket hauls in the last two matches and could trouble the hosts if the pitch offers something for the bowlers.
