North Zone coaches Ajay Sharma and Sarandeep Singh picked Yash Dhull as opener alongside Jammu & Kashmir's Qamran Iqbal for the Duleep Trophy 2026 clash against West Zone. Former India Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Dhull got the nod ahead of the third-highest run-scorer of Ranji Trophy 2025-26, Delhi's Sanat Sangwan. The move has raised a lot of eyebrows about the selection. The issue is set to be highlighted even more as Dhull followed the single-digit score with a five-ball duck in the second innings at BCCI Centre of Excellence, Bengaluru.
As per a PTI report, a Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) official claimed that Sangwan was made scapegoat to fit in Dhull.
“Since it was difficult to fit in Dhull in the middle-order where Doseja, Badoni, Samad and Sindhu are performers, the only person who could have been made the scapegoat was Sanat Sangwan, who doesn’t have a lot of backing in DDCA," a DDCA official said.
DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma distanced himself from the selection calls.
“In zonal matches, it is the coaches who decide the playing eleven. Ajay (head coach) and Sarandeep (assistant coach) are the two coaches. I can’t sit here and say why they didn’t pick Sanat and played Yash," he said.
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Dhull’s dismissals
In the first innings, Dhull was dismissed by Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur. He managed to score just nine runs from 26 balls. North Zone managed to post 251 on the back of fiery fifties from Ayush Badoni and Anshul Kamboj. In the second innings, Dhull got out lbw to Mumbai left-arm spinner Shams Mulani.
Meanwhile, Iqbal could not convert starts into big scores. In the first innings, he scored 26 runs from 46 balls. He was dismissed lbw by Tushar Deshpande. In the second innings, he hit three boundaries before falling to Mulani in the fifth over for a 15-ball 16.
Sangwan’s Ranji Trophy 2025-26 numbers
Sangwan had scored 828 runs from seven games at an average of 69, featuring three tons and three fifties. He was only behind his teammate Ayush Doseja (949 runs) and Karnataka's Ravichandran Smaran (950 runs).
On the other hand, Dhull had scored 434 runs from five games, averaging 48.22. He scored a ton and three fifties.