Saurabh Tiwary at the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, Sept. 22: After returning from the Champions League in South Africa, Mumbai Indians middle order batsman and Jamshedpur boy Saurabh Tiwary has no time to spare.

The dashing left-hander will captain a 16-member South Zone team in a four-day tournament against Rest of Jharkhand, beginning on Friday in the steel city. The last match between the two sides was washed out in Dhanbad.

Saurabh is keen on making the most of this match to prepare for the upcoming Irani Trophy. “I’m looking forward to the tournament and want to score big runs for my team,” said Saurabh. The tournament between Rest of India and Ranji champions Mumbai is scheduled in Jaipur from October 1-5.

After failing to earn a slot in the playing XI at the recently concluded Tri-Series and Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, 21-year-old Saurabh would not like to lose an opportunity of performing well in the Irani Trophy.

Speaking to The Telegraph from Delhi, Elite Sports Management director Nishant Dayal, who handles the cricketer’s portfolio, said: “It is very important for Saurabh to perform well in Jaipur as it will help him retain his place in the Indian team for the one-day series against Australia and New Zealand. We are very confident about his chances in the coming series.”

The South Zone team led by Saurabh includes Ishank Jaggi, Rameez Nemat, Ashish Yadav, Shankar Vishwakarma, Ajit Dwivedi, Sumitabh Kumar, Chandan Singh, Madhusudan Tantubai, Rahul Shukla, Yajuvendra Krishnatry, Raj Kumar, Sunny Gupta, Samar Quadri, Dominic Rex and Charan Kamal.

Former Ranji skipper Manish Vardhan will helm the Rest of Jharkhand squad, which includes Sachin Prasad, Siddhartha Raj Sinha, Rajiv Kumar, Keshav Kumar, Santosh Tiwary, Aakash Verma, Deepak Chougle, Arun Vidyarthy, S.P. Gautam, Kuldeep Sharma, Mihir Diwakar, S.S. Rao, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Mishra and Sujit Roy.

All names were announced by Jharkhand State Cricket Association.

The four-day fixture would provide a platform for youngsters who are knocking the doors of the state Ranji outfit. On reaching his home turf, the youngster, who led Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy (Plate Group), spent time at Cable Cricket Academy with trainees. Saurabh, who recently joined Tata Steel, also swam a few rounds at the J.R.D. Tata Sports Complex this morning.