Musheer Khan scored his first century this seasonImage Credit source: PTI
The beginning of the new season has been full of ups and downs for Mumbai, the most successful team in Ranji Trophy history. The team has won only one match out of 3, while 2 matches have been drawn. A major reason for this condition of this team is that there has been no consistency in the performance of the batsmen and the star batsmen have not been able to do anything special. This situation continued in the fourth match also, where the team's top order was dismissed quickly against Himachal Pradesh. But only one batsman continued to face the bowlers bravely and that was Musheer Khan, who scored an excellent century.
The fourth round of matches in the group stage of Ranji Trophy 2025-26 season started from Saturday 8th November. Mumbai batted first against Himachal Pradesh in Elite Group D but on the very first day, the team's top-order star batsmen quickly returned to the pavilion. Wickets including veteran batsman Ajinkya Rahane and young opener Ayush Mhatre had fallen for only 35 runs. At such a time, all eyes were on opener Musheer Khan and elder brother Sarfaraz Khan had come to the crease to support him.
Sarfaraz has been ignored in Team India for some time now, which has become a topic of constant discussion. He did not get a chance for the Test series against South Africa, which was much debated. In such a situation, this batsman had a good chance to present his claim but he failed here. There was a partnership of 38 runs between Sarfaraz and his younger brother Musheer and Sarfaraz, who usually bats aggressively, returned to the pavilion after scoring only 16 runs in 57 balls.
Mumbai's situation was bad as they had lost 4 wickets till 73 runs but Mushir Khan converted this disaster into an opportunity and scored a brilliant century. This batsman, just 20 years old, regained his rhythm completely with this innings after his slow start in the current season. Musheer scored the fourth century of his first class career and pulled the team out of trouble. This was Musheer's first century in first class cricket in the last 14 months. His last century came on 5 September 2024 in the Duleep Trophy. After this he could not even open his account in 3 innings.
Musheer finally returned to the pavilion after playing a strong innings of 112 runs in 162 balls. During this, he made an excellent partnership of 157 runs for the fifth wicket with Siddhesh Lad, which put Mumbai in a better position. By the end of the day's play, Siddhesh Lad himself scored his 12th first class century. By the end of the first day's play, he returned unbeaten after scoring 100 runs, while Mumbai had scored 289 runs after losing 5 wickets.
