Ranji Trophy: Ajinkya Rahane returns as Mumbai eye outright win vs Odisha
Forty one-time Ranji Trophy champions and last year's runners-up Mumbai have a strong chance to register their first outright win of the season against a lowly Odisha in a Group 'C' encounter at Bhubaneswar starting today. Though Mumbai will be missing out on the services of in-form batsman Shreyas Iyer who is on national duty for the T20I series against New Zealand, the visitors will be boosted by the return of Test batsman Ajinkya Rahane and pacer Shardul Thakur.
Ajinkya Rahane
Dangerous trio
Even fit-again pacer Tushar Deshpande has been included in the side and is likely to form a good bowling combination with Thakur and experienced pacer Dhawal Kulkarni. However, Mumbai's spin department once again seems highly dependent on the left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil. Mumbai is placed fourth in the group with four points from two games just above Odisha, who are fifth with two points in as many games.
Mumbai's imperfect past
When the last time these two teams clashed at Wankhede Stadium in December 2013, Mumbai had to be satisfied with three points despite making Odisha follow on after hosts skipper Wasim Jaffer (143) and Hiken Shah (170) registered centuries. In response to Mumbai's 501 for nine declared, Odisha managed to score 256 in the first innings and compile 356 for five in their second essay in a draw. Natraj Behera scored a hundred in each innings for Odisha.
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