The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has appointed Shreyas Iyer as the captain of Mumbai senior men’s team for the remaining league matches of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
“Shreyas Iyer will take over the leadership responsibilities in place of Shardul Thakur, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to injury and is currently unavailable for selection,” MCA secretary Dr Unmesh Khanvilkar said.
Thakur met with an injury during the last league game against Maharashtra and he won’t be available for remaining games.
This will be Iyer’s first competitive game of his comeback post-injury. He has been picked for three-ODI series between India and New Zealand from next week. However the senior national selection committee has noted that Iyer’s availability is subject to fitness clearance from BCCI COE.
The 31-year-old suffered an injury last October while attempting to take a diving catch to dismiss Alex Carey in the third India vs Australia ODI in Sydney. He was admitted to a Sydney hospital for a laceration of the spleen with internal bleeding. The injury forced him to miss three months of international cricket, and his recovery wasn’t rushed by the medical team. The extent of Iyer’s injury was such that his oxygen levels dropped to 50, and for ten minutes, he wasn’t able to stand properly. He had a complete blackout, and it took him some time to come back to normal.
Iyer underwent a series of rehab sessions. As per board’s policy on ‘return to play protocol’, he spent ten days at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru where he played a practice game. He passed all physical tests, and was cleared by the medical team to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
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