Follow UsMumbai, who qualified for the Ranji Trophy semi-finals by taking the first-innings lead against Baroda, will have the services of Shreyas Iyer, who missed the last round despite not being a part of the Indian Test squad, for the semi-final clash against Tamil Nadu that starts on March 2.
Meanwhile, Washington Sundar has also been released from the Indian Test squad and will play for Tamil Nadu.
Iyer has been under fire for a while now, particularly because of his absence from the first-class competition after he failed to make an impact with the Test side. India persisted with Iyer for the first two Tests against England, but he failed to make any impact, scoring just 104 runs across four innings in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.
The Mumbai batter had a terrific start to his Test career, averaging 56.7 in his first seven Tests, scoring 624 runs with one hundred and five fifties. Since then, his average has plummeted to 36.9 and he averages only 17 since 2023 in seven Tests, dividing his career into halves of two extremes.
He hasn't had a 50-plus score in the last 12 innings, either. His performance in the Ranji Trophy could have paved his path back into the side, keeping an eye on the series against Bangladesh and Australia in the backend of the year.
Recently, the BCCI has made it compulsory for players to turn up in the Ranji Trophy but Iyer decided to skip the last league game and the Quarter-final for reasons yet to be cleared. But there was no mention of Iyer’s injury in BCCI’s communication.
Mumbai will take on Tamil Nadu in the semi-final whereas Vidarbha will take on Madhya Pradesh to secure a place in the final.