New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS) Ayush Badoni is set to captain Delhi in their second Elite Group D Ranji Trophy fixture against Himachal Pradesh, starting at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.

Despite being named in India A’s squad for the upcoming first four-day match against South Africa A at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru from October 30 to November 2, Badoni will feature in the Ranji Trophy contest before joining the squad.

“The reporting date of players based outside Bengaluru for the first India A game is October 28, which is also the day when second round of Ranji Trophy is over. This means that Badoni can wrap up the game and then fly to Bengaluru to join India A side,” said sources aware of the development to IANS on Friday.

In Delhi’s first game of the Ranji Trophy season, which ended in a draw against Hyderabad, Badoni was dismissed for 53 in the first innings and picked 6-73 in 24.2 overs with his off-spin bowling.

Before coming into the Ranji Trophy, Badoni had a productive time – amassing scores of 63, 204 not out and 40 for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy. He then had a score of 21 for India A in the first four-day game against Australia A in Lucknow, before slamming 50 and 21 while taking three scalps in the two white-ball games in Kanpur.

There were also strong murmurs of India wicketkeeper-batter and Test vice-captain Rishabh Pant linking up with the Delhi team for the game against Himachal Pradesh post recovery from a fractured right foot sustained in the fourth Test against England at Manchester in July.

But IANS understands that the change in plan happened once Pant, who has been at the CoE since mid-September for his recovery process, was named as India A captain for the two red-ball games against South Africa A.

“It’s understood that a confirmation from Pant was to come to the Delhi think-tank for playing in the second round of Ranji Trophy. But it has come to light that the decision makers at the top came to a conclusion that Pant playing India A games at the CoE will be a much better option in assessing his readiness from a match fitness perspective,” further said sources.

The reason why Delhi took three points from a drawn encounter against Hyderabad was due to them taking the first-innings lead, with Sanat Sangwan and debutant Ayush Doseja being the standout performers by striking double centuries each.

Coming together at 113/3, the left-handed duo stitched a commanding 319-run partnership to propel Delhi to 529/5 declared. Sangwan remained unbeaten on 211 off 470 balls, while Doseja hit a fluent 209 off 279 deliveries in his maiden first-class game.

Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh also opened its campaign with a draw, earning three points after securing a first-innings lead against Puducherry. The Ankush Bains-led side posted 305 before dismissing the hosts for 183, with Aryaman Dhaliwal, Mukul Negi, and Mayank Dagar being the main wicket-takers.

When: Saturday, October 25, 9:30 AM IST

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

Where to watch: No broadcast, scores to be followed live on bcci.tv.

Squads

Delhi: Ayush Badoni (captain), Yash Dhull (vice-captain), Arpit Rana, Sanat Sangwan, Anuj Rawat (wk), Sumit Mathur, Shivam Sharma, Rounak Waghela, Navdeep Saini, Simarjeet Singh, Money Grewal, Siddhant Sharma, Dhruv Kaushik, Pranav Rajvanshi (wk), Nitish Rana, Himmat Singh, Ayush Doseja, Rahul Dagar, Hrithik Shokeen, Priyansh Arya, Tejasvi (wk), Vaibhav Kandpal, and Rohan Rana

Himachal Pradesh: Ankush Bains (captain and wicketkeeper), Innesh Mahajan (wicketkeeper), Ekant Sen, Nikhil Gangta, Akash Vasisht, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Dagar, Arpit Guleria, Aryaman Singh, Divesh Sharma, Ankit Kalsi, Mukul Negi, Pukhraj Mann, Sidhant Purohit, Ravi Thakur, and Vipin Sharma

-–IANS

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