Shreyas Iyer to captain Mumbai in remaining Vijay Hazare Trophy fixtures

With Shardul Thakur unavailable due to calf injury, Shreyas Iyer will lead Mumbai in the remaining group league fixtures of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Shreyas, who joined the Mumbai team on Monday, had a long training session at the Jaipuria Vidyalaya ground, under the watchful eyes of coaches Omkar Salvi and Atul Ranade.

Shreyas looked comfortable batting against fast bowlers and did some catching drills as well. “With Shardul still recovering from the injury, it has been decided that Shreyas will captain the team for the last two group league fixtures,” Mumbai’s chief selector Sanjay Patil told Sportstar.

Even though India’s T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav is also expected to play in the next couple of games – against Himachal Pradesh and Punjab – the Mumbai selectors decided to give the captaincy role to Shreyas, who is currently India’s ODI vice-captain.

This will be Shreyas’ return to competitive cricket after recovering from a spleen injury he suffered during India’s tour of Australia last October. The Indian batter spent 10 days at the CoE for the last leg of rehab, and as part of the fitness protocol, he also completed his match simulation, playing in a practice game last week without any signs of discomfort.

He has been included in India’s ODI squad for the home series against New Zealand, with his participation subject to fitness. And, as the seasoned campaigner trained with his Mumbai teammates, he seemed comfortable during sprints and catching drills.

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While Shardul is set to miss the remainder of the group stage, as he has been advised to rest by the doctors, Sarfaraz Khan is set to return to the team for the game against Himachal after missing the last league match against Maharashtra due to quadriceps pain. While his scan reports were normal, the 28-year-old had a long session in the nets, along with his younger brother Musheer Khan.

Meanwhile, Mumbai has added off-spinner Shashank Attarde to the squad.

Placed second in Elite Group C with 16 points from five outings, Mumbai needs to win at least one of its two games and also better its Net Run Rate (1.293) to qualify for the knockouts.

Published on Jan 05, 2026