Aditya Tare shares his views on Mumbai's 500th Ranji Trophy match

Mumbai will play their historic 500th Ranji Trophy match against Baroda at the Wankhede Stadium today with a full strength team which include India players like Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur. Where the visitors are concerned, they face Mumbai without Irfan Pathan Yusuf Pathan and Pandya brothers Pandya and Krunal. Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare described the 500th match as a special game and felt the current players are quite fortunate to be in the squad for this historic encounter.

Mumbai's Ajinkya Rahane (left) and Prithvi Shaw train yesterday prior to their Ranji Trophy match against Baroda at Wankhede today. Mumbai will be playing their 500th Ranji match. Pic/Suresh Karkera

"There is going to be a great vibe to the game. But, we are going to treat it as just another game of cricket which is important for us. We want to win it. We will play with positive intent and try and get maximum points from the game. We are back at the Wankhede after a long time. It's great to come back to the home dressing room at our home ground," Tare said on match eve yesterday. Mumbai have five in-form batsmen - Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Akhil Herwadkar, Siddhesh Lad and Jay Bista - who have scored centuries this season and left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil and Akash Parkar who have claimed 12 and 10 wickets respectively.

The 41-time Ranji Trophy champions are third in Group 'C' with 10 points. Andhra Pradesh (15) and Madhya Pradesh (14) are ahead of them, while Deepak Hooda's Baroda are fifth with four points. When asked his opponents, Tare said: "Baroda have always been a good team. A lot of cricketers emerge from there. At the moment, they are a young team, but dangerous."

The visitors' batting line-up depend on young batsmen - Atit Seth, 21 and Vishnu Solanki, 25, who scored 278 and 269 respectively in their first three games this season. Seth also shone with the ball, taking 11 wickets with a fifer against Andhra Pradesh. Hooda, who took over the captaincy from Irfan, said he is not concerned about the team's position in the points table. "I look at it as any other game. I don't view it as Mumbai's 500th. I don't follow the table. It will be a good track for the fast bowlers and we'll take one game at a time. Our focus is on the process," the Baroda captain said.

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Pathan brothers won't be missed: Hooda
Though Baroda are without their senior players - Irfan and Yusuf Pathan (who scored centuries in both innings against Madhya Pradesh in the opening game) - captain Deepak Hooda is well prepared to cope with their absence. When asked as to why Irfan and Yusuf are unavailable, Hooda had no answer. "I don't know the reason. It's the decision of the Baroda Cricket Association. "The last game was my first game. Whatever the situation, we have to perform," said Hooda. When asked whether the absence of senior players will affect the team, he said: "No. We have a good young side and our batsmen have scored runs in the U-23 level and doing well.