India’s former T20 International captain, who is now back to the domestic cricket grind after losing his place in the national side, entirely skipped the pre-season training routines ahead of the squad announcement. He had made himself available nonetheless. Suryakumar Yadav’s persistent absence from the pre-season camp was the reason behind his exclusion from Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy team, a Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) source told PTI on Tuesday.
Mumbai’s red-ball players have been training for the last one month with their practice continuing on Tuesday as well, at the Cricket Club of India and the Mumbai Cricket Association’s BKC Ground here.
PTI understands that Suryakumar was also non-responsive about 10 days ago when he was approached for Mumbai squad selection and made himself available at a later stage. However, lack of red-ball experience and not attending the pre-season camp of the 42-time Ranji Trophy winners led to Suryakumar not being named in Mumbai’s 16-member side to face Chandigarh in their season-opener from October 11-14 here at the Wankhede Stadium.
He does not have any immediate red-ball experience and everyone was unanimous in their decision on Suryakumar,” the source said, adding that the selectors, otherwise, would have had to exclude a young player which “did not seem fair”. “At the end, it is a team game. The doors to Mumbai selection are not completely shut for Suryakumar, who was last seen in action during the T20 Mumbai League right after the IPL. He will be required to play club cricket organised by the MCA such as the Police Shield or the Purushottam Shield Tournament in order to get back in contention.
Suryakumar, who led India to their third T20 World Cup title earlier this year, is in line to lead Mumbai but only if the Shreyas Iyer, his successor in the national side, is not available.
