With Abrar Kazi gone, who will captain Mizoram?

MUMBAI: Just as they were looking forward to play their first-ever game at the iconic Wankhede Stadium against formidable Mumbai, in front of live TV audience, things have turned nightmarish for Mizoram .


In a shocking development, their captain, Abrar Kazi, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch on Wednesday night on charges of fixing in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL).

The side looked rattled in practice, on the eve of the lung opener against Mumbai, it still hadn't been decided on who will replace Kazi as the new Mizoram captain for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.

Besides Kazi, Karnataka's KB Pawan and Uttar Pradesh's Taruwar Kohli are the other professional, outstation players in the team from North-East. After he scored 227 runs in seven games@45.40, with two fifties, in the Vijay Hazare One-Day Trophy, and took nine wickets@19.80 with his left-arm spin, Kazi, who played for Karnataka earlier, was named as the captain for this tournament. He was training with the team at BKC, before the team was rocked by this incident.

Mizoram still haven't officially made a request for a replacement for Kazi as their third professional player. Akhil Rajput played for them last season, but he was replaced by Kazi after the BCCI introduced a rule from this season that any professional cricketer hired by any of the domestic teams must have played atleast 20 First Class games. Interestingly, Mizoram's coach PC Shashikant is also a former Karnataka First-Class player.