NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Ranji Trophy team, in a mess right now, have decided to leave out batter Nitish Rana even as they have none of their frontline pacers available for thier first home game against Tamil Nadu beginning Tuesday.
Ishant Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Simarjeet Singh and Mayank Yadav are all nursing injuries. Harshit Rana, who has just one First-Class game to his name, will be leading the attack in cold, foggy conditions that are likely to aid the seamers.
The team management has taken a tough call by dropping Rana. Rana is the biggest name in Delhi cricket outside the international stars, thanks to his multi-crore deals in the IPL. The selectors, however, have decided to look at a possible transition going ahead.
TOI also understands that Rana’s commitment towards Delhi’s red-ball team has been questioned by the Delhi and District Cricket Asociation (DDCA).
As Delhi, with just one point from their first two games of the season, struggle to find players to make a decent XI, Tamil Nadu will be licking their lips as they eye an away win at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
It’s their big chance to make amends for their loss against Andhra in the last round. Tamil Nadu’s in-form openers N Jagadeesan and Sai Sudarshan spent a considerable amount of time in the nets to get used to the cold and damp conditions in Delhi. Washington Sundar will be looking to enhance his reputation as a red-ball allrounder and captain Vijay Shankar bowled a long spell in the practice session.His seam bowling will be a crucial factor.
For Jagadeesan, Sudarshan, Baba Indrajith and Aparajith, it will be a chance to show the national selectors that they are good at handling testing conditions. It’s their chance to move up the pecking order while Delhi batsmen Himmat Singh and Dhruv Shorey will have to show they can carry this beleaguered team on their shoulders.
