Pravin Tambe set to make Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai at 42

Forty two-year-old leg spinner Pravin Tambe was on Monday surprisingly included in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team to take on Jharkhand in the four-day Group A match starting at the Wankhede Stadium here on December 6.

Lack of top quality spinners has apparently forced the Mumbai selectors to include Tambe, who made his mark in T20 cricket while playing for Rajasthan Royals in last season's IPL and Champions League but is yet to figure in first class cricket.

Tambe, who plays for the DY Patil Sports Academy in local cricket, has picked up 13 wickets in 8 T20 games in his career. He will complement left arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar. Tambe was the most successful bowler in the 2013 edition of CLT20, taking 12 wickets in 5 matches for the finalists Rajasthan Royals with an economy rate of just 4.10 and an impressive strike rate of 9.5 balls per wicket.

The defending champions made a few other changes in their squad that whipped Vidarbha by 338 runs yesterday.

The unavailability of captain and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who is to set off for South Africa, soon has once again opened the doors for Kshemal Waingankar to take his place in the squad.

All-rounder Abhishek Nayar will lead the side in Zaheer's absence.

The squad: Abhishek Nayar (Capt), Aditya Tare (Vice-capt), Wasim Jaffer, Hiken Shah, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Vishal Dabholkar, Siddhesh Lad, Javed Khan, Shardul Thakur, Akbar Khan, Kshemal Waingankar, Manish Rao, Pravin Tambe and Sagar Kerkar. Coach: Sulakshan Kulkarni.