He is selected in India squad for NZ ODIs as well.
A spleen injury during the Australia tour kept Shreyas Iyer out of the field for more than two months. On Monday, MCA secretary Dr Unmesh Khanvilkar announced that the India batter will return to action and also take over the captaincy for the Himachal Pradesh vs Mumbai clash in Jaipur. This comes after regular skipper Shardul Thakur has been ruled out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 due to a calf injury.
“The Mumbai Cricket Association is pleased to announce that Shreyas Iyer has been appointed as the Captain of the Mumbai senior men’s team for the remaining league matches of the Vijay Hazare Trophy,” Khanvilkar said in a statement.
Earlier, Shreyas Iyer was given conditional clearance by the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence to resume play. He was available for the Mumbai clash on January 6. Additionally, the middle-order batter was also added to the India squad for the New Zealand ODIs starting on January 11.
This clash will also be Iyer’s first competitive match since he left the field in Sydney during the second ODI. If only he completes the match pain-free, he will get full clearance to join Shubman Gill & Co. for the three-match ODI series.
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The 34-year-old pacer succumbed to a calf injury on Monday. If Shardul Thakur continues to be out of the 50-over tournament, it remains to be seen who will captain Mumbai once Iyer returns to international cricket. The pacer is expected to be out for about three weeks.
As a replacement, off-spinner Shashank Attarde has been added to the squad. The 34-year-old has one wicket from two List A matches so far at an average in triple figures.
Thakur led Mumbai in their last match against Maharashtra on January 3. He returned wicketless at the cost of 25 runs. The team lost their first match of the tournament by a huge margin of 100+ runs. Overall, in VHT 2025-26, Shardul Thakur has 11 wickets from five games.
Mumbai are currently placed second in the Elite C Group of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26. They have 16 points from four out of five wins, and are just below Punjab due to a minor difference in the NRR. To qualify for the knockouts, Mumbai need at least one win in their remaining two fixtures against Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday and Punjab on Thursday.
Sarafaraz Khan, who missed Mumbai’s last fixture against Maharashtra due to a quadricep pain, is also expected to be back for the upcoming game. With 220 runs in three games, including a century and a half-century, he is Mumbai’s leading run-getter.
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