Delhi have included veteran India pacer Ishant Sharma for their debut Ranji Trophy 2018/19 tie against Himachal Pradesh starting from November 12 (Monday).
Meanwhile, Nitish Rana will shoulder the responsibility of leading the side after Gautam Gambhir decided to step down. Moreover, of the season. The right-arm pacer will be playing his first competitive game after two months. He had suffered an ankle injury during the fifth and the final Test against England in September. He missed the two home Test matches against Windies and the Ranji Trophy game will help him to get match practice ahead of the Australia Tests.
Furthermore, Anuj Rawat will do the work in the absence of Rishabh Pant. Pant is currently with the India squad for the series against Windies and Australia and have international commitments. However, surprisingly, the selectors have dropped Unmukt Chand from the 15-member squad.
Kulwant Khejoroilya will lead the pace bowling attack in absence of Navdeep Saini, who is a part of India A squad for the four-day games against New Zealand A.
The right-arm pacer will be available to play for Delhi after first few Ranji games. Delhi will open their campaign against Himachal Pradesh from October 12 at 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.