The duo have been under scrutiny because of lack of big scores in Tests of late
Pujara and Rahane have been under scrutiny because of lack of big scores of late. Rahane last scored a century in December 2020, against Australia in Melbourne, whereas Pujara last reached triple-figures against the same opposition, but over three years ago in Sydney.
Since then, Rahane has averaged only 20.25 to score 547 runs in 27 innings, with three half-centuries and a high score of 67. In this period, his average has dipped from over 43 to under 39. Rahane last played the Ranji Trophy in 2019-20 when Mumbai won only one of their eight league games and failed to make the knockouts.
The selectors will have an eye on both batters getting back to domestic cricket ahead of India’s next Test series, against Sri Lanka starting February 25. The Ranji Trophy is set to start on February 16.
Mumbai squad: Prithvi Shaw (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Sachin Yadav, Aditya Tare (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shivam Dube, Aman Khan, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, Shashank Attarde, Dhaval Kulkarni, Mohit Awasthi, Prince Badiani, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Dias, Arjun Tendulkar
Saurashtra squad: Jaydev Unadkat (capt), Cheteshwar Pujara, Sheldon Jackson, Arpit Vasavada, Chirag Jani, Kamlesh Makwana, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Prerak Mankad, Vishvarajsinh Jadeja, Harvik Desai, Kevin Jivrajani, Kushang Patel, Jay Chauhan, Samarth Vyas, Parthkumar Bhut, Yuvrajsinh Chudasama, Devang Karamta, Snell Patel, Kishan Parmar and Aditya Jadeja