Delhi pin hopes on all-rounders

Delhi, led by Mitthun Manhas, will be riding high on the confidence of North Zone’s recent Duleep...

Delhi, led by Mitthun Manhas, will be riding high on the confidence of North Zone’s recent Duleep Trophy victory and the Ranji Trophy Elite win, when they open their Ranji Trophy one-day encounter against Jammu and Kashmir at Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday. Delhi will miss their main strike-force Ashish Nehra, who is currently in South Africa undergoing rehabilitation for his injured knee.

Delhi will also miss the service of Gautam Gambhir, Pradeep Sangwan, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Virat Kohli — all on national duty. NS Negi has replaced Ashish Nehra for the first two encounters, with Nehra expected to join the team later.

“We will decide on the team composition only tomorrow. We have an option to go in with an extra batsman, keeping in mind the fact our all-rounders have performed well. But we are not taking our opposition lightly as we still remember the fiasco against Himachal, where we were all out for 75 in the 4-day game,” said Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya.

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On paper, Delhi seem to be favourites as Jammu and Kashmir are a relatively young side, with U-19 and U-22 players. “We are underdogs. We have a young side. Our batting is not our strength but we rely on our pace attack of Sami-Ula Baigh, Sameer Ali and Vijay Sharma,” said J&K coach Gulam Mohammed.

Squads

Delhi: Mitthun Manhas (C), Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Tehlan, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht, Aditya Jain, Amit Bhandari, Sumit Narwal, Manan Sharma, N S Negi, Parvinder Awana, Sohail Sharma, Gaurav Chhabra and Chetanya Nanda.

J&K: Sami Ula Baigh (C), Sameer Ahojuri, Vijay Sharma, Raman Dutta, Ian Dev Singh, Zaheer Soufi, Aadil Rishi, Sandeep Singh, Inderjit Singh, Hilal Ahmed, Asif Ahmed, Obaid Ahmed, Sameer Ali, Vimansu Kaul, Ram Dayal, Javed Ahmed.