Delhi name their 15 men squad for the semi-final clash against Bengal

The Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) have announced the squad for Delhi’s Semi-final encounter against Bengal, starting tomorrow. Seasoned campaigner and skipper Ishant Sharma has been ruled out due to an ankle niggle that he sustained during the third Test against Sri Lanka earlier this month. Ishant has scalped 20 wickets in his four outings in this Ranji season.

With Mohammed Shami and Wriddhiman Saha set to don the Bengal jersey, Delhi would have loved to have the lanky pacer in their ranks. The Indian selectors wanted all the Indian Test regulars to play for their respective sides, as there are no domestic games taking place now.

Pant to lead Delhi

Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant will lead Delhi in the important game and he will have the presence of Gautam Gambhir by his side. It is going to be a contest between Delhi’s batting v Bengal’s bowling. It will be interesting to see how the game turns out as Gambhir and Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwari hasn’t been the best of friends of late.

Regarding the Bengal XI, Tiwari told PTI “I will only take a call after today evening’s team meeting. Experience is never up for sale. We are happy that players of Shami and Wriddhi’s calibre are available for such a crucial match.”

“What I loved this year about our team is the growth of our players. They have gone that extra yard, made those sacrifices required and here we are. Each and everyone has strived hard for us to reach this stage,” the skipper added.

Gambhir has scored 505 runs so far in the Ranji season and even though his chances of making a comeback into the national team looks thin, he hasn’t lost his sight at excellence. Nitish Rana, who was impressive in this year’s IPL, has done well for Delhi in the domestic season. He has notched up 515 runs while his teammate Dhruv Shorey has scored 374 runs in 7 games.

Here's our 15 men squad for the #RanjiTrophy Semi Finals starting tommorow,
Unfortunately @ImIshant misses the game due to a ankle niggle he got during the 3rd test against SL, Akash Sudan retains his place #DDCA #BENvDEL pic.twitter.com/b8aTjZa2Y9

— DDCA (@DDCA_Cricket) December 16, 2017

Delhi: Rishabh Pant (captain), Kunal Chandela, Gautam Gambhir, Dhruv Shorey, Himmat Singh, Nitish Rana, Vikas Tokas, Kulwant Khejroliya, Navdeep Saini, Vikas Mishra, Aakash Sudan, Unmukt Chand, Manan Sharma, Shivam Sharma, Milind Kumar.

Bengal:  Manoj Tiwary (captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Avishek Raman, Sudeep Chatterjee, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Anushtup Majumdar, Shreevats Goswami, B Amit, Ashok Dinda, Mohammed Shami, Aamir Gani, Writtick Chatterjee, Pradipta Pramanik, Mukesh Kumar and Kanishk Seth.