Mumbai selectors did not pick Surya for the Ranji Trophy season opener against Chandigarh starting October 11. Chief selector Rajesh Pawar said, “He is a very big player. But the thing is, he hasn’t played red-ball cricket for the past 15 months.” The team now focuses on younger batting talent.
Surya was surprised that the national selectors dropped him from the T20I squad after the T20 World Cup win in March. He thought he had another T20 World Cup in him. Perhaps, a shot at the Olympics too. He overlooked the sharp dip in his batting form, but the selectors didn’t.
On Monday, the Mumbai selectors didn’t pick Surya for their Ranji Trophy season opener against Chandigarh from October 11. This came as little surprise to those in the Mumbai cricket circles, but those close to the player say he wanted to play and had made himself available on the eve of the meeting.
“He is a very big player. But the thing is, he hasn’t played red-ball cricket for the past 15 months,” Mumbai chief selector Rajesh Pawar told reporters. “If he performs, he can come back.”
If Surya was indeed selected, that wouldn’t have been routine, it would have marked a comeback for the 36-year-old. The aggressive batter last featured in three Ranji Trophy matches during the 2024-25 season.
His red-ball appearances dwindled after his first decade in first-class cricket, led by a stellar start in the early 2010s. This especially after he found his mojo in T20 cricket, both in IPL and for India. He then had little time to work on his red-ball game. The surprise Test call up in 2023 against Australia didn’t go to plan.
At the back-end of his career, if Surya still wants to play all domestic cricket, that may not be with an eye on a Test comeback. He may have a point to prove to himself as much as to the rest of the world.
An experienced international sharing his wisdom would work fine in many domestic set ups. But Surya’s ambitions don’t align in a Mumbai set-up whose batting riches are still enviable. By naming 19-year-old batter Ayush Mhatre as vice-captain, the selectors have indicated that they have an eye on the future.
There’s also the prolific Musheer Khan and his experienced brother Sarfaraz in the middle order combining with skipper Siddhesh Lad. At 34, Lad is no longer young, but was the leading scorer last year with 774 runs and held the middle-order together. The talented Angkrish Raghuvanshi is still waiting, while scoring heavily in U23s.
With opener Yashasvi Jaiswal expected to play a limited part in the Ranji campaign due to national duty, possibly Sarfaraz too, there may still be a way back for Surya. But the Mumbai selectors have signalled their intentions on how they wish to move forward. Surya, a former Ranji winner for the 42-time champions, won’t take long to see reason.