NAGPUR, 16 FEB

It's unlikely that Mumbai will have an injured Yashasvi Jaiswal in their ranks, but the resilient defending champions are firm favourites against Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy semifinal, beginning on Monday.

PTI understands that Jaiswal might travel to the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru for further assessment of his unspecified injury soon, as he has been named as a "non-travelling reserve" in India's Champions Trophy squad.

But the possible absence of Jaiswal in no way reduces the firepower of Mumbai in a match that is the repeat of last year's final.

Mumbai have a host of stars in their line-up such as skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur who can alter the course of the game on their own.

But more than the presence of some acclaimed and accomplished players, their determination makes the 42-time champions a team cut from different cloth.

On several occasions this season, Mumbai's top-order malfunctioned but their lower-order batters like Thakur and Tanush Kotian have bailed them out with gritty efforts.

Even in the quarterfinal against Haryana, they were tottering at 113 for seven before Shams Mulani and Kotian milked 183 runs for the eighth wicket to rescue Mumbai.

Mumbai would hope that the big guns will return to run-making ways on the Nagpur pitch that often sides with batters.

While the stories of such late-order resistance are heart-warming, Mumbai would like a more polished effort from their top-order against Vidarbha, who are in red-hot form this season.

They don't have big names in their bowling line-up, but Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare and Nachiket Bhut have consistently struck for Vidarbha.

In fact, left-arm spinner Dubey is the highest wicket-taker this Ranji season with 59 victims in his bag.

Hence, Vidarbha will be eager to exploit that slightly wobbly nature of Mumbai top-order and put them under pressure early.

None of the Mumbai batters figure among the top 20 of the highest run-makers this season.

Siddesh Lad (565 runs) is their top run-aggregator and he is 22nd on the run-maker's list.

In contrast, Vidarbha's frontline has been in much better shape this season as Yash Rathod (728 runs) is the fourth-highest run-getter in the chart.

Karun Nair (591) and skipper Akshay Wadkar (588) too have chipped in with important runs.

However, they would like some better outings from openers Atharva Taide and Dhruv Shorey.

Teams (from):

Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Ayush Mhatre, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Amogh Bhatkal, Suryakumar Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal (injured), Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Akash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Suryansh Shedge, Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Mohit Avasthi, Sylvester D'Souza, Royston Dias, Atharva Ankolekar, Harsh Tanna.

Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (c & wk), Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Yash Kadam, Akshay Wakhare, Aditya Thakare, Darshan Nalkande, Nachiket Bhute, Siddhesh Wath (wk), Yash Thakur, Danish Malewar, Parth Rekhade, Karun Nair, Dhruv Shorey.

Match starts at 9.30 am.