Injured Srinath opts out of Irani match

Ace speedster Javagal Srinath has opted out of the Rest of India team which will play Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai in the five-day Irani Cup clash, at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday, because of a knee problem.

"Srinath sent us a faxed message yesterday (Thursday), in which he expressed his inability to play in the Irani Cup tie as he has been advised rest by his doctor after taking injections for his troublesome knee. He has been replaced in the Rest team by (his Karnataka pace mate) Dodda Ganesh," BCCI executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar said on Thursday.

Despite the absence of Srinath, who had earlier opted out of the ICC Knockout Trophy, now in progress at Nairobi, and the October 20-29 Sharjah tri-series, Rest seem to possess enough ammunition to hold the upperhand against a depleted Mumbai side.

The absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and Ajit Agargar, all doing duty for India in Nairobi, has left Mumbai pretty weak, especially in batting, and their not-so-sound top-order will be up against a varied Rest attack.

The Mumbai batting line-up wears a thin look, especially in terms of experience, with the uncapped Nishit Shetty and Sushant Manjrekar, who made his debut only last season, placed in the middle with team vice-captain Amol Muzumdar.

The batting will rely heavily on the wiry-looking Muzumdar, who has not lived up to his early promise, and opener Wasim Jaffer, who made his Test debut last season, and will have a rookie as partner in Vinayak Mane to launch the innings.

Jaffer, Mane, a replacement for Amit Pagnis who has joined the Railways, Muzumdar, Kiran Powar, Shetty, Manjrekar and skipper Sameer Dighe will be tested by the Rest attack of Ganesh, Ashish Nehra, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Murali Karthik and Sharandeep Singh.

The performances of Jaffer and Muzumdar will be watched intently by the five national selectors who are expected to be present. The Mumbai bowling too, in the absence of kingpin Agarkar and the retired Abey Kuruvilla, looks threadbare.

The major burden will fall on the shoulders of the experienced Paras Mhambrey, who will have back-up seam support from Santosh Saxena, and either Sriram Kannan or Swapnil Hazare, another newcomer.

The Mumbai spin attack, manned by one of the two left-arm spinners - Rajesh Pawar or Nilesh Kulkarni - and off-spinner Romesh Powar can pose some problems to the Rest batting line-up which is quite impressive and is led by their captain Vangipurappu Laxman, the wristy Hyderabad strokemaker.

Laxman has been given the go-ahead by the selectors to bat in the middle-order for the Rest team after his failure in opening the innings for India at the international level barring a blazing 167 in the Sydney Test against Australia in January this year.

There will be an absorbing contest among the Rest batsmen to grab the selectors' attention ahead of the long international season and none would be keener than the openers, Sadagopan Ramesh and Shiv Sunder Das.

Tamil Nadu's Ramesh, who has not played for India since his thumb injury in the Test series in Australia, and Orissa's Das, one of the three National Cricket Academy trainees who were sent to Australia for a training stint last season, have a lot at stake in the match.

Another player eager to grab attention will be UP middle-order batsman Mohd Kaif who had a pretty decent outing in his debut Test series against the South Africans at home last season.

He had also trained at the Australian Cricket Academy with Das and Tamil Nadu's Sridharan Sriram.

Baroda's Jacob Martin, who has been discarded from the national one-day team, and Maharashtra's Abhiit Kale are two other middle-order aspirants while Virender Sehwag (Delhi), Shukla (Bengal) and Sodhi (Punjab) would be eager to impress the selectors with their all-round display.

Attention will also be focussed on Railways' Karthik, a frontrunner for the left-arm spinner's spot, and off-spinner Sharandeep, who edged out his senior Punjab mate Harbhajan Singh in getting the selectors' nod for inclusion in the Rest team.

Another player who will be observed keenly as a long-term India prospect by the selectors would be Haryana stumper Ajay Ratra, a member of the victorious under 15 national team at the last World Cup in Sri Lanka.

The teams (from):
Mumbai: Sameer Dighe (capt.), Amol Muzumdar (vice-capt.), Wasim Jaffer, Vinayak Mane, Kiran Powar, Nishit Shetty, Sushant Manjrekar, Romesh Powar, Paras Mhambrey, Rajesh Pawar, Santosh Saxena, Sriram Kannan, Swapnil Hazare, Nilesh Kulkarni and Amit Dani.

Rest of India: V V S Laxman (capt.), S Ramesh, S S Das, Mohd Kaif, Jacob Martin, Abhijit Kale, V Sehwag, A Ratra (wk), M Karthik, A Nehra, L R Shukla, Sharandeep Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and D Ganesh.

Umpires: A V Jayaprakash and S K Bansal.

Match observer: Prof R S Rathore.

Hours of play: 9 30 a.m to 12 noon; 12.40 p.m. to 2 40 p.m; 3 p.m to close of play.

Mail Cricket Editor