Ranji Trophy 2018-19: DDCA announces 15-man Delhi squad for the first game

Delhi has made an announcement of their squad for the Ranji Trophy 2018-19. Nitish Rana has been appointed as the skipper after Gautam Gambhir stepped down as the captain on the day of team selection. Dhruv Shorey will play the role of deputy to Rana

Since Nitish Rana and Dhruv Shorey will miss out on a few matches due to the Emerging Cup to be played the next month, Delhi may find themselves looking for a new captain. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, who is unavailable due to international commitments, Anuj Rawat will be standing behind the stumps.

Rishabh Pant is part of the squad for the series against Windies and the tour of Australia which is about to get underway in less than a month. Unmukt Chand, the Indian opening batsman has not been included for the opening match of the tournament. The former captain of the U19 World Cup winning team has been inconsistent, as a result of which he has been dropped from of the team on a few occasions. Chand has not been able to cement himself as a regular member of the playing XI.

Kulwant Khejroliya will spearhead the bowling attack for Delhi in Navdeep Saini’s absence who will be playing for India A in the first four-day game against New Zealand A.

Ishant Sharma included in the Delhi squad

Speedster Ishant Sharma has also been included in the Delhi team for their opening fixture. The lanky fast bowler will play his first competitive match after a span of two months. He suffered an ankle injury in the fifth and the final test against England at the Oval in September 2018.

It also prevented him from participating in the home Test series against the Windies. The matches in the Ranji Trophy will enable the right-arm pacer to get valuable match practice ahead of the high voltage Test tour of Australia.

Delhi has had a strong showing in the Ranji Trophy traditionally, having won the first-class competition on seven occasions. Delhi begin their tournament against Himachal Pradesh from October 12 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.

Squad: Nitish Rana (Captain), Dhruv Shorey (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Hiten Dalal, Himmat Singh, Anuj Rawat (WK), Ishant Sharma, Kulwant Khejroliya, Vikas Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Simarjit Singh, Vaibhav Rawal, Varun Sood, Sarthak Ranjan, Shivank Vashisth.

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