India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will not be making his domestic comeback in Delhi's Ranji Trophy opener against Hyderbad that is set to commence from October 15. The 26-year-old has been out of action for multiple months now as he has not yet recovered from the toe fracture that he had sustained during the Manchester Test against England in July.
Ahead of Delhi's opening Ranji Trophy match, multiple reports had claimed that Pant may make his comeback to the domestic circuit and may even end up leading the sidew during the tournament. However, his name was nowhere to be found in the 24-member squad announced by Delhi & District Cricket Association's (DDCA) selection committee.
"The selectors have named 24 because they felt that a larger pool is always available for selection during each game. However, when we play home games in Delhi, we will prune it down to 15," DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma told PTI.
Meanwhile, the Delhi team will be led by Ayush Badoni in their match against Hyderabad and Yash Dhull will be his deputy. Nitish Rana has been recalled to the squad while Priyansh Arya has earned his maiden call-up for the domestic tournament and is expected to open the batting for Delhi in upcoming games.
Will Pant feature in Delhi's second match?
The DDCA Secretary shared his views on Rana's return to the Delhi team and also revealed that they are expecting Pant to participate in the side's second match of the Ranji Trophy that will be against Himachal Pradesh and will commence from October 25.
"He (Nitish Rana) is an experienced player and the selectors wanted to check him out. In any case, he will play the white-ball leg. In fact, in the next game, we are expecting Rishabh Pant to play," Sharma stated.
Delhi's squad for Ranji Trophy opener: 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, Aryan Rana.