2017-18 Ranji Trophy: Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan included in Delhi's preliminary squad

What's the story?

Indian skipper Virat Kohli, along with opener Shikhar Dhawan, has been included in Delhi's 40-member preliminary squad ahead of the 2017-18 Ranji season.

The squad also features the likes of Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant, out-of-favour Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir, 2012 under-19 World Cup captain Unmukt Chand etc.

One of the notable absentees from the initial squad is discarded Indian pacer Parvinder Awana, who missed the tournament last year due to chikungunya.

"Last year, chikungunya had left me weak. I was not even considered for the one-day and T20 probables. If only I was given an opportunity... no one spoke to me. I am hurt because I have played for Delhi for 10 years. I wish I had been given a chance to prove my fitness before discarding me," Awana told The Hindu after his exclusion from the team.

In case you didn't know...

Ahead of the Ranji season, Delhi has been pitted in Group A alongside Karnatakam Assam, Maharashtra, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh and Railways. It is not an easy task for Delhi to qualify for the next round as there are some equally strong teams being grouped alongside them.

Details

The three-member selection committee consisting of Atul Wassan, Hari Gidwani and Robin Singh Jr, in consultation with coach K.P. Bhaskar, announced the 40-member squad that will have a pre-season camp ahead of the season.

The selectors also didn't name a captain since this is a pre-season squad. After the camp, the selectors will again pick a 15-member final squad along with standbys.

The probables: Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Pradeep Sangwan, Unmukt Chand, Navdeep Saini, Milind Kumar, Dhruv Shorey, Jonty Sidhu, Manjot Kalra, Mayank Rawat, Manan Sharma, Nitish Rana, Varun Sood, Vikas Tokas, Subodh Bhati, Pulkit Narang, Pawan Suyal, Sarthak Ranjan, Kulwant Khejrolia, Himmat Singh, Kshitij Sharma, Aditya Kaushik, Akash Sudan, Shelly Shaurya, Harsh Tyagi, Tejas Baroka, Arjun Gupta, Dinesh Mor, Anuj Rawat, Rajesh Sharma, Gaurav Kumar, Vikas Mishra, Simrajeet Singh,Vishwas Malik, Kunal Chandela, Sahil Malhotra, and Sarang Rawat.

What's next?

The 2017-18 Ranji trophy commences on October 6 with the group stages set to get over by the last week of November. The knockouts, which will be played for five days unlike the group stages, will start in the first week of December and the final is set to take place from December 29 to January 2 (2018).

Author's Take

In spite of being named in the preliminary squad, it is highly unlikely that the likes of Kohli, Dhawan, Ishant, Rishabh Pant and Pradeep Sangwan will take part in the camp.

Kohli and Dhawan (Pant too as he is in contention for a place in the Indian side) will be representing the Indian ODI team against the Aussies while Ishant Sharma might fly to England to take part in the county championships. Sangwan, on the other hand, is yet to recover from the rib injury he suffered a few weeks back.