Thakur, 34, has been replaced to manage his workload, as the Mumbai think tank aims to maximise his value as the premier bowler in the red-ball team. There are winds of change blowing in Mumbai cricket. Seasoned middle-order batter Siddhesh Lad has replaced Shardul Thakur as Mumbai captain for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season, and either Shreyas Iyer or Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side in white-ball domestic tournaments, depending on their availability. He has also contributed heavily with the bat in crunch situations in the past.
Ahead of the 2025-26 season, Thakur had replaced Ajinkya Rahane .
“We have both Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav as choices for white-ball captaincy, but it depends on their availability,” a senior official from the MCA told PTI. It is for a second consecutive season that Mumbai will enter the Ranji Trophy with a new captain at the helm. Mumbai will also be looking to maximise their leadership options in white-ball cricket, with the incumbent India T20I captain Shreyas and his predecessor Suryakumar both in the fray for the captaincy role.
The Ranji season will kick off on October 11. Mumbai will take on Chandigarh in their opening match of Elite Group D. The other teams in this group are Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Railways, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand.
Iyer had earlier replaced Suryakumar as the captain of the Indian T20I team, a few months after the latter guided the national side to their second consecutive and overall third T20 World Cup title in February this year.
