Ranji Trophy: Atharva Ankolekar injury leaves Mumbai's spin department severely crippled

Mumbai: Mumbai's spin department seems heavily jinxed at the moment.

A bad injury, which forced young left-arm spinner Atharva Ankolekar to leave the field on a stretcher while he hurt himself while fielding on the boundary has left Mumbai with just one spinner in their crucial ongoing Ranji Trophy away match against Hyderabad. Ankolekar himself replaced senior Shams Mulani on the morning of the match, after a "urine issue" ruled out the left-arm spinning allrounder.



Before the match, off-spinning allrounder Tanush Kotian had to return from Hyderabad due to a hand injury.

Replacing Mulani after the latter was ruled out on the morning of the match, Ankolekar made 35 not out off 22 balls, with five fours and a six, as Mumbai, riding on Sarfaraz Khan's superb double century (227 off 219 balls) piled up 560but hasn't bowled a single over in Hyderbad's innings so far. In fact, his participation in the match is under doubt. "The problem is that as per the BCCI's 'serious injury replacement' rules, only a like-for-like replacement can be allowed for Ankolekar from the squad. We don't have any spinner in the squad now," a source in the MCA said.

Meanwhile, it's learnt that Mulani had blood in his urine and was also experiencing severe back pain. He had to thus withdraw from the match on Day One morning with Ankolekar being rushed to replace him. "Mulani has returned to Mumbai and has undergone a few tests to determine if he is suffering from a urine infection or kidney stones,” a source said.



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