Ajinkya Rahane opts out of Mumbai’s remaining Ranji Trophy season due to 'personal reasons'

INDORE: In a surprising development, which is certainly a jolt to Mumbai ahead of the second leg of the Ranji Trophy season, veteran batter and former India captain Ajinkya Rahane on Saturday informed the Mumbai Cricket Association that he won’t be taking part in the rest of the red-ball season due to ‘personal reasons’.

Mumbai will play the first of their remaining two Ranji Trophy group stages matches against Hyderabad in Hyderabad from Jan22-25 before returning to their home turf to play their last league phase match against Delhi at the MCA-BKC ground from Jan 29-Feb 1. Having won three out of their five matches and suffering no outright defeats, Mumbai are topping Group D with 24 points in their kitty.



The Mumbai team for the Hyderabad match will be picked on Saturday. Incidentally, Rahane inaugurated the MCA’s ‘Cricket Kit Fair’ at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.

“Yes, Rahane has informed us ahead of today's selection committee meeting that he won’t be taking part in the remaining season of the Ranji Trophy due to personal reasons,” MCA secretary Unmesh Khanvilkar told TOI.

The 37-year-old missed the recently-held Vijay Hazare Trophy too, though he did feature for Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, and finished as the team's highest run-getter, scoring 391 runs in 10 matches@48.87, with three fifties and a highest core of 95 not out against Odisha.

After having stepped down from captaincy at the start of the season, Rahane was in average form in the Ranji Trophy, having made 209 runs in four matches@34.84, only one hundred (159 against Chhatisgarh). India allrounder Shardul Thakur took over the Mumbai captaincy from Rahane.

Out of favour with the national selection committee for more than two years now, Rahane played the last of his 85 Tests, in which he scored 5077 runs@38.46, with 12 hundreds and 26 fifties, for India in July 2023 against West Indies at Port of Spain. In this period, he played plenty of domestic cricket for Mumbai in the hope of an India Test recall, but was unable to put up significant scores in the Ranji Trophy, and was even excluded from the West Zone side for the Duleep Trophy at the start of the season.

He captained IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, but it's uncertain if he will lead them in the upcoming season.

Rahane, who loves playing red-ball cricket, had captained Mumbai to the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy title, ending a seven-year drought, as well as the 2024-25 Irani Cup. While quitting the Mumbai captaincy, Rahane had said, “Captaining and winning championships with the Mumbai team has been an absolute honour. With a new domestic season ahead, I believe it’s the right time to groom a new leader, and hence I’ve decided not to continue in the captaincy role,” Rahane posted on X. He added, “I remain fully committed to giving my best as a player and will continue my journey with @MumbaiCricAssoc to help us win more trophies. Looking forward to the season.”



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