Rishabh Pant joins Delhi Squad, Virat Kohli's availability remains unconfirmed

Domestic cricket and top cricketers not giving it preference have been debated a lot in the past few months. However, after suffering a humiliating defeat in Australia after nearly a decade time, the BCCI took some stringent steps to ensure that senior players play for their states as a compulsion. Now in a fresh development, star India wicketkeeper-batter, Rishabh Pant has been included in Delhi's squad for the upcoming season of the Ranji Trophy.

However, senior stalwart Virat Kohli was left out of the 21-member squad announced by the DDCA on Saturday, January 18. Notably, Kohli has some injury concerns due to which he made himself unavailable for a few matches. This development comes after India Captain Rohit Sharma confirmed that he would play for Mumbai against Jammu & Kashmir. For the unversed, the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 league stage matches will resume on January 23.

Both the Indian players were part of the tour down under. In the aftermath of the loss, the apex Indian board put forth a 10-point policy, which also mentioned that playing domestic cricket would not be optional anymore. Only in some exceptional cases or for a valid reason, the concerned player would be exempted from the games. However, should a player omit himself from playing in the domestic circuit without giving a valid reason, the board has some policies that have severe consequences regarding the national team selection. Moreover, this may also result in the termination of central contracts as well.

Meanwhile, speaking of Team Delhi, the squad was picked by the selection panel led by Gursharan Singh. The team was also named keeping in mind the upcoming Ranji Trophy matches against Saurashtra and Railways. Both the games will be played on January 23 and 30, respectively. Kohli's name was not mentioned due to a reported neck injury, which the veteran suffered during the Sydney Test.

Rishabh Pant opts out of Delhi Captaincy

Now speaking of both the players' last appearances in the Ranji Trophy, Virat Kohli last represented Delhi against Uttar Pradesh (UP) in 2012. While on the other hand, Rishabh Pant last played for Delhi during the 2017-18 season of the Ranji Trophy. When it comes to leading the team, Ayush Badoni has been asked to continue as Delhi Captain. Earlier, Pant was expected to lead the side, but as per News 18, the wicketkeeper-batter did not want to lead the side and conveyed the same to the DDCA bosses.

As far as the performance of Delhi is concerned, in the ongoing season, they are placed in the fourth spot in the Elite plate of Group D with 14 points. So far they have won five games and need another two wins to qualify for the knockout stages of the Ranji Trophy. The team will now travel to Rajkot to play against Saurashtra on January 20.

Delhi squad:

Ayush Badoni (C), Sanat Sangwan, Arpit Rana, Yash Dhull, Rishabh Pant, Jonty Sidhu, Himmat Singh, Navdeep Saini, Money Grewal, Harsh Tyagi, Siddhant Sharma, Shivam Sharma, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Vaibhav Kandpal, Mayank Gussain, Gagan Vats, Ayush Doseja, Rounak Waghela, Sumit Mathur, Rahul Gahlot, Jitesh Singh.

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