India’s opener Gautam Gambhir and fast bowler Ishant Sharma have been included in the Delhi Ranji Trophy squad for Delhi’s third fixture against Karnataka which is scheduled to be played in Kolkata at Eden Gardens. Gambhir will be back for Delhi after missing out the first two games for the state due to national duties whereas Ishant Sharma missed the whole Test series against New Zealand as he was still recovering from Chikungunya. Now none of them being the part of ODI team, the Delhi selectors decided to add both these players in Delhi squad for the third fixture.
We may Gambir taking the captaincy charges back from former U19 skipper Unmukt Chand who led the team in the first two games in absence of Gautam Gambhir. Unmukt did justice to captaincy role handed over to him as Delhi took the revenge of last year by defeating Assam in the first game whereas missed the first innings in the high-scoring encounter against Maharashtra at Wankhede Stadium. The second contest was an interesting game as both the teams posted a combined total of 1225 runs at cost of just 12 wickets. The Maharashtra Captain Swapnil Gugale and Delhi batsman Rishabh Pant both scored a triple century in the game. Ankit Bawne, the Maharashtra batsman also scored 258* runs.
In the end, it was Maharashtra who was crowned the winner as they possessed the first innings lead at the end of the game.
Delhi will be facing R. Vinay Kumar led side at Eden Gardens from October 20. One can expect a great game of cricket as Karnataka side also has international players like R. Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Robin Uthappa, Stuart Binny. The young batsman Mayank Agarwal adds weight to this team.
Delhi team has made 3 changes to the team as injured bowlers Pradeep Sangwan and Navdeep Saini have been ruled out for this fixture whereas opening batsman Mohit Sharma has also returned to Delhi following a double failure in first two games. Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, and all-rounder Subodh Bhati are three additions to the team.
Delhi squad for the game against Karnataka: Gautam Gambhir (C), Unmukt Chand, Dhruv Shorey, Nitish Rana, Rishabh Pant, Milind Kumar, Manan Sharma, Varun Sood, Parwinder Awana, Ishant Sharma, Pawan Suyal, Subodh Bhati, Pulkit Narang, Vikas Tokas, Vaibhav Rawal