(Cricket News) Himmat Singh will now captain Delhi, which will play their first Ranji Trophy 2023–24 match at home at the Feroz Shah Kotla against Puducherry. The news follows shortly after Delhi’s crushing – and shocking – defeat to Puducherry in their opening match.
“Yash is a talented player but is out of form. We wanted him to do well as a batter, so we relieved him of captaincy duties. Himmat is our senior player and has done very well for us. He will captain the side,” joint secretary Rajan Manchanda of the Delhi and District Cricket Association stated following Puducherry’s nine-wicket victory over Delhi, which saw Dhull score two and twenty-three.
Himmat, who is six years older than Dhull at 27, led Delhi to a victory over Mumbai in Dhull’s absence last season. In 22 first-class games, Himmat has scored 1174 runs at an average of 39.13, and averaged 45.25 last season.
Dhull, who captained India’s Under-19 World Cup-winning team in 2022, was named the state team captain in December 2022 and scored a century on captaincy debut. Since making his first-class debut in February 2022, Dhull has made 1185 runs at an average of 43.88 in 17 matches. However, he averaged just 27 in the previous Ranji Trophy season.
Senior Delhi quicks Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma, who were included in the India A squad to play the England Lions, will not be traveling to Jammu with the team for their next game. It has been reported that veteran pacer Ishant will only be available for Delhi’s home games. Delhi has won the Ranji Trophy seven times, most recently in 2007–08.
See more: Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya ruled out of Afghanistan T20I series
