Delhi announce Badoni-led 24-member Ranji Trophy squad, Nitish Rana included

New Delhi, Oct 10 The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) on Friday has announced a 24-member squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season, with Ayush Badoni appointed captain and Yash Dhull named vice-captain.

Delhi will begin their 2025/26 campaign with an away fixture against Hyderabad on October 15, before returning to host Himachal Pradesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on October 25. Badoni is back to being Delhi’s skipper after having a stint with India ‘A’ team during the red-ball games against Australia ‘A’ in Lucknow.

The selection meeting was attended by Yashpal Singh, KP Bhaskar, Manu Nayyar, chief coach Sarandeep Singh, CAC member Surinder Khanna, DDCA Secretary Ashok Sharma, and Joint Secretary Amit Grover. Other notable names in the squad include Priyansh Arya, Anuj Rawat, Navdeep Saini, Simarjeet Singh and Hrithik Shokeen.

The squad also features senior left-handed batter Nitish Rana, who is back in the set-up after representing Uttar Pradesh as a professional player. His selection is an intriguing one as Rana never got going with the red-ball for Uttar Pradesh in last two domestic seasons and has runs only on the back of this year’s Delhi Premier League (DPL).

There is no mention of India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant in Delhi’s squad, but there’s an expectation that he will be ready to play once gaining full fitness after completing his rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, where he’s been based from since mid-September.

Pant has been recovering from a fractured right foot sustained during the fourth Test against England at Manchester in July and the long recovery from it has meant that he’s missed out on the ongoing Tests against the West Indies and upcoming white-ball tour of Australia.

IANS had previously reported that Pant could be back in action for Delhi’s home game against Himachal Pradesh. This agency also understands that Pant could even be handed captaincy if he’s included in Delhi’s squad for the premier red-ball competition after getting fitness clearance.

In this year’s Ranji Trophy, Delhi are in Elite Group D alongside 42-time champion side Mumbai, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Puducherry. Delhi didn’t qualify for the Ranji Trophy knockouts last season and amidst the selection squabbles, one would hope that the on-field performances would take centrestage soon.

Delhi squad: Ayush Badoni (captain), Yash Dhull (vice-captain), Arpit Rana, Sanat Sangwan, Anuj Rawat (wk), Sumit Mathur, Shivam Sharma, Rounak Waghela, Navdeep Saini, Simarjeet Singh, Money Grewal, Siddhant Sharma, Dhruv Kaushik, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Nitish Rana, Himmat Singh, Ayush Doseja, Rahul Dagar, Hrithik Shokeen, Priyansh Arya, Tejasvi (wk), Vaibhav Kandpal, Rohan Rana and Aryan Rana (Subject to fitness)

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