Nitish Rana to lead Delhi in SMAT; Rathi misses out

New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) Nitish Rana was on Saturday named captain of Delhi team for the upcoming Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy, beginning across centres from November 26.

This will be Rana’s first outing for Delhi in the ongoing domestic season after moving in from Uttar Pradesh.

Rana could not find a place in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy side, even as the former champions failed to register an outright win so far in the tournament.

In Elite Group D, Delhi, who were led by both Ayush Badoni and Yash Dhull, are currently placed sixth with eight points from five matches.

The 2017-18 SMAT champions will be hoping for a change of fortunes in the T20 tournament under Rana.

This move sort of completed his homecoming after linking up with Delhi Capitals for IPL 2026 after a trade by Rajasthan Royals.

However, leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi could not find a place in the squad of 23, and it is not immediately known whether he has picked up an injury or not.

The Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) said pacers Ishant Sharma, Harshit Rana and Navdeep Saini will join the team subject to their availability.

Delhi, coached by former India spinner Sarandeep Singh, are placed in Group D alongside Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra, and Tripura, and all their matches will be played in Ahmedabad.

Delhi squad: Nitish Rana (captain), Priyansh Arya, Sarthak Ranjan, Ayush Badoni, Arpit Rana, Ayush Doseja, Mayank Rawat, Tejasvi (wk), Anuj Rawat (wk), Himmat Singh, Yash Dhull, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Dagar, Yash Bhatia, Ankit Rajesh Kumar, Harsh Tyagi, Suyash Sharma, Prince Yadav, Money Grewal, Rohan Rana, Dhruv Kaushik, Aryan Rana, Vaibhav Kandpal. PTI UNG PDS PDS