Ranji Trophy: Ishant Sharma back, Delhi eye knockout berth

NEW DELHI: All of a sudden, there's optimism in the Delhi camp, ahead of their Ranji Trophy match against table-toppers Baroda which begins on Friday. The dramatic win against Uttarakhand in their last match has instilled belief in the setup that they could still have a shot at qualification even though they got off to a horrendous start in the tournament.

Going into the match, the first thing that they want to fix is their playing XI. After all the criticism around dropping star batter Ayush Badoni for the last game, it will be interesting to see if the management goes in with him.

The spotlight will also be on Yash Dhull who has not managed to score a single half century across formats this season even as the team has decided to back the youngster to the hilt. Captain Himmat Singh has won back the trust of the management with a match-winning 194 in the last match. However, Badoni, Dhull and Himmat must be thinking about their careers getting unravelled if they implode in the remainder of the tournament.

"The association realizes that the team is positioned very delicately in the group. The coach has been given his preferred players. Ishant Sharma will be back and so will seam-bowling allrounder Pranshu Vijayran," a DDCA official told TOI on Thursday.

There's has been much criticism about playing Kshitiz Sharma, someone who has looked completely out of place at this level, ahead of Badoni who has been Delhi's highest scorer in the white-ball phase. This was because the Delhi and District Cricket Association didn't like how Badoni was 'losing focus.'

Sources told TOI that coach Devang Gandhi has been given a free hand to pick the strongest possible XI for the match to be played at the Air Force ground at Palam.

Sitting at just seven points from four matches, coach Gandhi insists that his team can still qualify for the knockout stage if they manage to win their two remaining home matches and one away game in Himachal.


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