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Delhi drop tainted Bihar politician's son from squad; bring Unmukt Chand back

The selection committee of the DDCA dropped Bihar politician Pappu Yadav's son Sarthak Ranjan and brought back seasoned Unmukt Chand for the Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy.

By Pti
Unmukt Chand

New Delhi, January 16: The senior selection committee of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association on Tuesday (January 16) dropped Bihar politician Pappu Yadav's son Sarthak Ranjan and brought back seasoned Unmukt Chand for the knock-out phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament, starting January 21 in Kolkata.

Ranjan's selection for the zonal leg of the Mushtaq Ali Trophy created huge controversy as the Atul Wassan-led committee ducked for cover having selected him without seeing him in a single competitive match during the season.

Ranjan, in fact, got scores of 31 off 20 balls and 25 off 17 against two of the weakest sides Jammu and Kashmir and Services respectively.

Interestingly in one match, Gambhir didn't come out to open, while in the other he didn't play in the eleven. The selection committee subsequently had an alibi of dropping Ranjan as Delhi senior team's matches clashed with Delhi U-23 squad's one day league matches in Himachal Pradesh.

"Sarthak, Himmat Singh and Tejas Baroka were put in the U-23 squad knowing that they are not automatic selection in the senior team's Playing XI. Also Unmukt, Varun Sood and Milind Kumar are senior players, who can beef up the senior team," a senior DDCA official said.

Many in the DDCA alleged that the selectors got an escape route in U-23 with regards to Ranjan, once the purpose of him being part of the IPL auction was served. "He was strategically played against two of the worst teams in the competition -- J&K and Services. Now that he has played two games, he is eligible for IPL auction," a DDCA official said.

What was more baffling was Wassan going on social media about Chand's non-performance in past 30 matches when twitteratti reminded him about the former India U-19 World Cup winning captain's performances in white ball cricket.

Squad: Pradeep Sangwan (Captain), Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Rana, Dhruv Shorey, Unmukt Chand, Milind Kumar, Lalit Yadav, Pawan Negi, Varun Sood, Kulwant Khejroliya, Navdeep Saini, Subodh Bhati, Vikas Tokas, Khistiz Sharma

Story first published: Wednesday, January 17, 2018, 11:36 [IST]
Other articles published on Jan 17, 2018