New Delhi: U-19 India cricketer Prithvi Shaw has been included in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad for the upcoming semifinal against Tamil Nadu, starting from January 1 at Rajkot. 

17-year-old Shaw replaced opening batsman Kevin Almeida, who failed to impress in his only appearance of the season, managing to score only 1 and 9.

The move to include a teenager in the Mumbai squad and that too for a big-ticket game like the Ranji Trophy is seen as a bold statement from the Mumbai selectors, who are looking for raw talent.

Prithvi impressed in the recently concluded Youth Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, scoring 191 runs in five matches with a best of 89.

The youngster first shot into limelight with the then highest score in school cricket, notching up 536 runs in a Harris Shield match in 2013.  His record was later broken Pranav Dhanawade’s towering knock of 1009 runs.

Prthivi’s inclusion is the only change in the Mumbai squad that toppled Hyderabad in the quarterfinal.

Mumbai sqaud:

Aditya Tare (capt and wk), Praful Waghela, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, Abhishek Nayar,, Shardul Thakur, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Tushar Deshpande, Royston Dias, Sufiyan Shaikh (wk), Vijay Gohil, Akshay Girap, Eknath Kerkar, Prithvi Shaw.