Vijay Hazare Trophy: Gautam Gambhir to lead Delhi; Rishabh Pant to play first three matches

New Delhi: Rising sensation Rishabh Pant, who scored his maiden Test hundred in England, will play the first three matches for Delhi in the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, starting 19 September.

However, veteran Ishant Sharma has been rested after a gruelling England series where he sustained an ankle injury on the fourth day of the fifth Test.

The 15-member team will be led by Gautam Gambhir and Dhruv Shorey will be his deputy. Gambhir has been handed back the captaincy after a gap of one year.

Pant, who captained Delhi to Ranji Trophy final last year, didn’t take up the leadership role as he is a certainty in the Indian Test squad for the West Indies series, starting 4 October.

With the consistent Shorey also expected to travel to New Zealand with the India A team, the selection committee chaired by Amit Bhandari decided to fall back on the experience of Gambhir, who is no longer in national reckoning.

The only new face in the squad is rookie all-rounder Pranshu Vajayran, who bats left handed and bowls medium.

All the performers of last year along with talented players from U-22 side has been picked for the tournament.

Reasonably experienced players like Unmukt Chand, Manan Sharma, Nitish Rana and Pawan Negi are all in the squad along with youngsters like basmen Lalit Yadav and Hiten Dalal. The U-22 pacers Simarjeet Singh and Gauav Kumar have also found berths in the senior team.

Simarjeet, however, was called for suspect action during last year’s CK Nayudu Trophy and had to undergo action correction.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Dhruv Shorey (vc), Rishabh Pant (wk), Unmukt Chand, Nitish Rana, Himmat Singh, Manan Sharma, Pawan Negi, Hiten Dalal, Lalit Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Gaurav Kumar, Kulwant Khejroliya, Simarjeet Singh, Pranshu Vijayran.

Delhi’s Itinerary (All matches at Kotla and Palam) (Elite B)

20 September: vs Saurashtra

21 September: vs Hyderabad

24 September: vs Uttar Pradesh

26 September: vs Odisha

28 September: vs Kerala

2 October: vs Andhra

4 October: vs Madha Pradesh

8 October: vs Chattisgarh