Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Ishant Sharma to Lead Delhi; Pradeep Sangwan Named Vice-Captain

India Test player, Ishant Sharma, will be leading the Delhi one-day side in the upcoming season of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2017/2018.

Ishant will take over the captaincy from Pradeep Sangwan, who led Delhi to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title earlier.

The officials had already confirmed that Ishant would be leading the side on his comeback and him replacing Sangwan in the job is no surprise. Sangwan though has been appointed as deputy to Ishant.

Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant, Unmukt Chand are few of the familiar names in the Delhi squad while Manan Sharma has also made a comeback after being dropped from the T20 tournament.

Hiten Dalal, who was the highest run-scorer for Delhi in CK Nayudu Trophy, has been called into senior side for the first time. He had recently struck 162 runs in the one day U-23 game against Himachal Pradesh to push for his selection.

Delhi has been bolstered by the addition of Navdeep Saini, who missed the Super League of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after being called to team India’s nets in South Africa. He will partner Ishant and Kulwant Khejroliya in the fast bowling duties.

The most significant absentee name from the list is that of India U-19 player, Manjot Kalra. He has not even been named on the list of standby players. Though he will not be available for Delhi for first few games but could have been given a chance on comeback but selectors did not name him. On the other side, Bengal named Ishan Porel in the side, despite him being busy with his U19 commitments.

The non-inclusion of Himmat Singh is also surprising. He was one of the consistent performers for Delhi in Ranji Trophy but got demoted to U-23 during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League.

Selectors have kept Anuj Rawat, Himmat Singh, Shivam Sharma, Vikas Tokas and Milind Kumar on standby.

Delhi will play its opening encounter against Uttar Pradesh on February 5. The one-time winner of Vijay Hazare Trophy will then face Tripura, Maharashtra, Bengal, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh in next league stage games.

Squad: Ishant Sharma (Captain), Pradeep Sangwan (Vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant, Hiten Dalal, Dhruv Shorey, Unmukt Chand, Nitish Rana, Lalit Yadav, Pawan Negi, Lalit Yadav, Subodh Bhati, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Kshitiz Sharma, Manan Sharma. 

Standbys –

Anuj Rawat, Himmat Singh, Vikas Tokas, Milind Kumar, Shivam Sharma.

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