Mumbai clean the slate after turbulent season

Mumbai's coach Pravin Amre is hoping that his pace spearhead Dhawal Kulkarni will be released from India's touring party in Australia ahead of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final clash, starting from February 15. Amre also revealed that Wasim Jaffer was unlikely to recover in time for the knockouts from a finger injury that has curtailed his appearances to just two games for this season.

Kulkarni has been with the India squad after being called up as Bhuvneshwar Kumar's replacement immediately after the Ranji opener in December. Though Kulkarni hasn't featured in a competitive game in Australia, he has still been retained with the World Cup squad as a back-up for India's injury-prone pace bowling line-up.

"I am hoping Dhawal will come [back] so that will be our major strength. I believe he is not in the World Cup, so he can join the team. That will be the biggest plus we are hoping [for]," Amre told reporters after Mumbai's last league game, against Karnataka. "I still don't think Jaffer is 100 percent. We will wait for the physio's report. We will wait, we have four days. In today's times with the modern medicines anything can happen."

Mumbai have had a turbulent season this year. After starting their season with a loss against minnows Jammu & Kashmir, Mumbai folded for just 101 against Railways, their ninth-lowest total ever. Despite surprising Uttar Pradesh in Kanpur and earning three points in Bengal, Mumbai conceded the innings lead to Madhya Pradesh at home.

If that wasn't enough, an unsettled dressing room - the captain Suryakumar Yadav was involved in an ugly spat with some of the other established faces in the team - resulted in Mumbai being humiliated for their first innings defeat in 64 years, on a turning track against Tamil Nadu.

As a result, when Mumbai reached Vadodara for their penultimate league game, the players, led by Aditya Tare, were thinking more about avoiding relegation than qualifying for the knockouts. Naturally, Amre had no hesitation in terming the game against Baroda as a turning point for his wards.

"The way we played against Baroda, we never thought about thinking whether we will qualify because we could have got relegated if we had lost," he said. "That was the threat we had and from there for the team to fight back, they showed a lot of character. The Baroda victory gave us confidence that we can beat Karnataka."

Having guided Mumbai to three Ranji titles, Amre felt the league stage will not have any bearing on the knockouts. "I feel that the league is a different tournament and knockout is a different tournament. We are entering a different tournament and we have to take it one game at a time. We are really delighted. The team has shown a lot of character, and everybody has backed each other."