By IANS
Mumbai : Bhavin Thakkar leads a second-string Mumbai cricket team that travels to Karachi Thursday for the Nissar Trophy four-day match against Karachi Urban, the Pakistan domestic champions.
The Ranji Trophy champions have lost the majority of its big names due to pullouts and international duty.
Only five players of the Karachi-bound squad actually played for Mumbai in the triumphant 2006-07 Ranji Trophy season.
Amol Muzumdar, last season’s Mumbai captain, is playing league cricket in England, Test opener Wasim Jaffer was ruled out with a minor knee injury while spinner Nilesh Kulkarni was not selected because of his alleged connections with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).
Sachin Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ramesh Powar and Rohit Sharma are on tour in England with Team India.
The one-off match between the Indian and Pakistani domestic cricket champions is to be played at Karachi’s National Stadium from Sep 8 to 11.
Last year, Uttar Pradesh comprehensively beat Sialkot by 316 runs to win the inaugural Nissar Trophy.
Mumbai: Bhavin Thakkar (captain), Sahil Kukreja, Vinayak Mane, Prashant Naik, Ajinkya Rahane, Vinit Indulkar, Hiken Shah, Abhishek Nayar, Omkar Gurav (wk), Kshemal Waingankar, Mudeep Mungela, Aavishkar Salvi, Rajesh Verma, Iqbal Abdulla, Vikrant Yeligati