DDCA’s under-22 selection committee drafts in inexperienced players, says changes will help ‘improve the squad’

In the first of their two do-or-die matches, the noose around the Delhi under-22 team’s neck tightened to a choking grip on Wednesday as the team reeled to 187 for the loss of eight wickets on Day One in the CK Nayudu tournament against Tamil Nadu at the St. Stephen’s ground. Neither did home advantage work in their favour nor did the rehashed team — with as many as five replacements in the side that the selectors made to “improve the squad”.

Gaurav Chhabra and Yogesh Nagar were earlier drafted into Delhi’s Ranji Trophy side, while Sparsh Jain, Tapan Jain and Bharat Veer were dropped on the basis of “poor performances”. Their replacements were Vikramjeet Singh and Lovinder Chaudhary (both of whom did not make it to the starting XI), Abhishek Bhati and Vikas Mishra.

Left-arm spinner Mishra was chosen on the basis of a few net sessions, despite the fact that there were already two in the team. Moreover, this season Mishra has worn the Delhi u-22 cap in just one 50-over match, in which he scalped a wicket for 23 runs.

Chaudhary, whereas, was picked for the under-22 squad without having represented the Capital in a single match in other age categories. Bhati too has been chosen without a record to write home about.

Sanjeev Sharma, DDCA’s chairman of selectors for under-22 team, explained that one must be ready to take chances to nurture a successful team. “Pawan Suyal, the left-arm seamer was chosen for the Ranji Trophy team even though he did not have much of a track record. We as selectors have to take our chances,” Sanjeev told Sportline. “When Imran Khan drafted Aaqib Javed and Waqar Younis into the Pakistan team, they hadn’t played even a single first class match. Abhishek Bhati and Lovinder Chaudhary impressed us in the nets. They deserve their chance.”

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