Suryakumar Yadav told Mumbai he was available, and they have left him out of the Ranji Trophy opener
Mumbai’s selectors want the 36-year-old to play some red-ball cricket before he comes back. His last first-class match was a Ranji semi-final in February 2025.
Oct 6, 2026
In early September the message from Mumbai’s selectors was simple. If Suryakumar Yadav made himself available for the Ranji Trophy, he would be picked. He did, telling MCA president Ajinkya Naik he was ready for the new season. On Monday, Mumbai named 16 players for their opener against Chandigarh at the Wankhede, and he was not one of them.
Chief selector Rajesh Pawar’s reasoning was about rust rather than reputation. He called Suryakumar a big player, and said the problem was the gap: about a year and a half without red-ball cricket. Before he comes back into the four-day side, Pawar wants him to play a few red-ball games and find his rhythm.
Twenty months since Nagpur
The numbers back Pawar up on the timeline. Suryakumar’s last first-class match was the 2024-25 Ranji semi-final against Vidarbha in Nagpur in February 2025, where he made 0 and 23 and Mumbai lost by 80 runs. In the quarter-final before that, against Haryana at Eden Gardens, he made 9 and 70.
His Test career amounts to a single cap, against Australia in Nagpur in February 2023, when he made 8. He is 36 now, and he has not played for India since lifting the T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad in March. The selectors replaced him as T20I captain with Shreyas Iyer in June and left him out of the squad altogether.
That is the context that makes the omission sting. A domestic red-ball season was the obvious route back towards anything, and the door Mumbai held open in September has closed, for one game at least. Pawar’s wording leaves room for a recall once he has played some longer-format cricket. What it does not say is where those games are supposed to come from.
Jaiswal in, Shardul out
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who also declared himself available, is in. So is Sarfaraz Khan. Siddhesh Lad captains the side, having taken over from Shardul Thakur, whom the selectors relieved of the job to manage his workload. Lad earned it with the bat last season: 774 runs at 77.40, with five hundreds.
Shardul will not be playing either way. He fractured his right middle finger in training and is expected to miss the first two matches. Suryansh Shedge is also unavailable after being picked for India A’s one-day series against Australia A in Puducherry.
Ayush Mhatre is vice-captain. The 19-year-old captained India to the Under-19 World Cup title this year and has come back from hamstring problems to prove his fitness.
Mumbai’s squad for the Chandigarh match
Siddhesh Lad (captain), Ayush Mhatre (vice-captain), Shams Mulani, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tanush Kotian, Atharva Ankolekar, Divyaansh Saxena, Tushar Deshpande, Musheer Khan, Mohit Avasthi, Sarfaraz Khan, Sylvester D’Souza, Suved Parkar, Onkar Tarmale, Aakash Anand (wicketkeeper), Hardik Tamore (wicketkeeper).
The match runs from 11 to 14 October. Mumbai’s Elite Group D also includes Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Railways, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, so there are six more chances for Suryakumar to force his way in, if he can find the red-ball cricket Pawar wants him to play first.