Rishab Pant has been appointed as the captain of Delhi Ranji Trophy team in the absence of Ishant Sharma. The news was confirmed by Delhi’s Head Coach KP Bhaskar to The Indianexpress.
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The news has come as a surprise as Delhi had already announced Milind Kumar as the Vice-Captain of the side and the right-handed batsman was expected to lead the team in Ishant’s absence, but the team management decided to hand over the mantle to the man with international cricket experience.
This will be the second time when the former U19 player would lead Delhi in senior cricket. He was appointed as the captain of Delhi for the Vijay Hazare Trophy early this year after selectors took some tough decisions and removed Gautam Gambhir as captain. The team failed to reach the second round of the tournament, and the captaincy also has affected his performance.
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Ahead of the start of 2017/18 season, selectors decided to hand over the captaincy duties back to Gambhir, but he refused to take charge. After his refusal, the selector decided to give the duty of captaincy to Ishant Sharma, who has led Delhi to two wins in three games. But with Ishant leaving the camp for India duty, Delhi decided to go back to the junior player, which also means that Milind Kumar, the vice-captain, will not be making his captaincy duty for Delhi.
Delhi have made one change to their squad as well. Pulkit Narag, the all-rounder, has been dropped for the next game. The selectors have roped in Lalit Yadav, a member of Delhi U-23 squad. Lalit has played three games of ongoing CK Nayudu Trophy and has scored 217 runs in four innings, at an average of 54.25. He is also part of team’s ongoing contest against Himachal Pradesh and has scalped a fifer in the first innings of the opposition.
Delhi will face R Vinay Kumar led Karnataka in their next contest, which will be played in Alur from November 9 to 12.
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