Pradeep Sangwan Replaces Rishabh Pant As Captain For Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy; Gautam Gambhir Retained

Pradeep Sangwan has replaced Rishabh Pant as the captain of Delhi for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018. The decision to replace Pant came as a surprise because he has just led Delhi to the final of Ranji Trophy, where Delhi lost to Vidarbha.

Sangwan did not play Ranji Trophy due to shoulder injury and was expected to make a comeback. He is former India U-19 player who was the part of Virat Kohli led the team that won the junior World Cup. Sangwan has also played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Lions in IPL.

India batsman, Gautam Gambhir has retained his place in the team amid speculations. There were reports that he might be ruled out due to off-field behavior but selectors decided not to drop the senior player.

Though, the Atul Wassan-led panel dropped Unmukt Chand, Manan Sharma, and Milind Kumar from Delhi squad while Subodh Bhati has made a comeback to the team. Sarthak Ranjan too has made a comeback.

Not playing in this tournament can see Unmukt going unsold in IPL auction, again. He could not get a buyer for himself last year as well, an event which happened just after he was dropped from the squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy.

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There are two new faces in form of Tejas Baroka and Gaurav Kumar. Baroka is a regular member of Delhi junior teams and was also part of Gujarat Lions in previous IPL. In fact, he created a record of playing an IPL game last year without playing in any senior league. Only a few players own this record.

Gaurav is a new ball bowler coming from junior ranks.

Himmat Singh, Nitish Rana, Kulwant Khejroliya, Navdeep Saini, Dhruv Shorey – who were a part of Delhi in Ranji Trophy have been retained.

Delhi will face North Zone teams viz Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Services and Punjab in the Zonal League. The Pradeep Sangwan led side will play all its matches at Feroz Shah Kotla from January 9.

Squad: Pradeep Sangwan (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant, Himmat Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Lalit Yadav, Kshitij Sharma, Nitish Rana, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Negi, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tejas Baroka, Subodh Bhati, Gaurav Kumar.