Rohit Sharma set to return in Ranji Trophy

Indian Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma is set to make his Ranji Trophy return as he has been named in the 17-member full Mumbai squad for their upcoming home encounter against Jammu and Kashmir. Rohit will play under the skipper Ajinkya Rahane. 

Defending champions Mumbai battling to qualify for the knockout stages

The defending champions Mumbai are ready to host Jammu and Kashmir in their upcoming Ranji Trophy 2024-25 group stage match, starting on January 23. It is a crucial game for both teams as the Elite Group A second-placed Jammu and Kashmir have 23 points (three wins and two draws) and the third-placed Mumbai have 22 points (three wins, one loss, and one draw). Baroda are leading the table with 27 points (four wins and one draw). Only the top two of the points table can advance to the knockout stages.

Ajinkya Rahane is set to continue his leadership role for Mumbai, where Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, etc. are set to challenge the present Group A runners-up.

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Rohit Sharma is ready to make his Ranji Trophy return after almost a decade

The 37-year-old Rohit Sharma is set to play a Ranji Trophy match for the first time since 2015. He is struggling in the red-ball cricket as the right-handed batter hasn’t scored many runs in the 2024-25 Test season.

In his last eight Tests, Rohit scored 164 runs in 15 innings with an average of 10.93. Except for one 52 runs against New Zealand during the third innings of the Bengaluru Test, Rohit managed only one more 20+ runs in his last 15 Test innings. 

In the recently concluded Australia tour, where India lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 by 3-1, skipper Rohit scored only 31 runs in five innings (average 6.20) and dropped himself from the last Test at Sydney.

For Mumbai, Rohit is the ninth leading first class run-scorer with 3941 runs in 65 innings (45 matches) with an average of 66.79, including 14 centuries and 15 half-centuries with the highest score of 309 not out. Among the Mumbai batters with 3000+ first-class runs, Rohit has the highest batting average.

Before the beginning of the home ODI series against England, Rohit Sharma needs a good batting performance in the Ranji Trophy to regain his confidence. He is a very important name for Team India for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025. ​

Complete Mumbai Squad for Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match against Jammu and Kashmir

Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ayush Mhatre, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Hardik Tamore (wk), Akash Anand (wk), Tanush Kotian, Shams Mulani, Himanshu Singh, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Awasthi, Sylvester Dsouza, Royston Dias, Karsh Kothari.