Zaheer, Harmeet included in Mumbai's pre-season Ranji camp

Left arm spinner Harmeet Singh, cold shouldered by Mumbai’s selectors the whole of last season, and struggling veteran paceman Zaheer Khan have been included in the 27-member pre-season Ranji Trophy training camp, commencing here from Monday. Harmeet, a member of India’s victorious 2012 under-19 World Cup winning squad who got embroiled in the 2013 IPL sport fixing controversy before being cleared by the BCCI of any wrong doing, did not play a single game for Mumbai last season. [caption id=“attachment_1578161” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Zaheer Khan. AFP[/caption] Neither was the 21-year-old slow bowler picked by any IPL franchise in season 7 of the T20 League as he sat at home cooling his heels. His last match of any significance was the IPL game for Rajasthan Royals against Pune Warriors on April 11, 2013. MCA joint secretary Nitin Dalal informed that Harmeet also picked up an injury during the last Ranji season and was out of action for a lengthy period of time. Alongside Harmeet, Mumbai selectors have also chosen first choice left arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar and Iqbal Abdullah. Also included in the list is injured pace bowler Zaheer Khan who picked up a side strain during IPL7 while playing for Mumbai Indians and was then ruled out of the tournament. He has not been chosen in the Indian Test squad for England too. “The camp will be on till the start of the next season,” informed Dalal. The camp will be held at Sharad Pawar indoor academy at Mumbai CA’s BKC complex. The Mumbai Ranji pre-season campers are: Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishsek Nayar, Suryakumar Yadav, Hiken Shah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Avishkar Salvi, Akhil Herwadkar, Sushant Marathe, Kaustubh Pawar, Siddhesh Lad, Sarfraz Khan, Aditya Tare, Wilkin Mota, Vinit Indulkar, Vishal Dabholkar, Iqbal Abdullah, Harmeet Singh, Shardul Thakur, Javed Khan, Saurabh Netrawalkar, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr.), Kshemal Waingankar, Praful Waghela and Shreyas Iyer. PTI