Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018: Gautam Gambhir returns to Delhi squad for the knockouts

Vijay Hazare trophy knockouts starts from February 21.

Gautam Gambhir is back in the Delhi squad for Vijay Hazare trophy knockouts. (AFP)

 Gautam Gambhir returns to the squad after sitting out the league phase due to an ankle injury. He submitted his fitness certificate to the team management on Sunday and became an automatic selection.

Gambhir's return has been timely for Delhi as they will now face Andhra in the knockouts. Delhi, despite being the host, will meet Andhra at the Palam ground, its second choice venue, and not at the Ferozeshah Kotla, on Thursday.

Manjot Kalra who was inducted into the side as a replacement for Gambhir failed to get a place in the team.  due to the consistency of the top order where Unmukt Chand, Hiten Dalal, Shorey, Nitish Rana and Rishabh Pant have all been among the runs. The lone slot in the middle-order went to Himmat in place of Kalra.

From the team that played in the league, tree changes have been effected – Harsh Tyagi, Gambhir and Himmat Singh in place of Manan Sharma, Kshitiz Sharma and Subodh Bhati. 

Specialist left-arm spinner Tyagi was preferred over Manan Sharma, a batting all-rounder, while Himmat returned in place of Kshitiz. Seamer Bhati, despite good performance, lost out to the combination of four fast bowlers since the team management insisted on an extra batsman.

Earlier, in the IPL 2018 auctions, Gautam Gambhir was bought by Delhi Daredevils and this can be very well said that he is back to his base. Delhi roped in Gambhir for 2.8 crores and he might well lead Delhi for the season. Having won two IPL season with KKR, Gambhir is aiming to lead Delhi to at least one IPL title before he hangs up his boots. 

Delhi squad

Ishant Sharma (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Rana, Hiten Dalal, Dhruv Shorey, Lalit Yadav, Himmat Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Pradeep Sangwan, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Negi, Harsh Tyagi and Milind Kumar

Standbys: Anuj Rawat, Subodh Bhati, Manjot Kalra, Manan Sharma and Shivam Sharma.
 

 
 

By Anshuman Roy - 19 Feb, 2018

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