Yash Dhull appointed as Delhi skipper for Ranji Trophy 2022-23

In what comes as a futuristic move from the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), U19 World Cup-winning captain Yash Dhull has been made the Delhi Ranji team skipper.

The decision is bound to raise a few eyebrows with veteran cricketers Ishant Sharma and Nitish Rana in their ranks.

However, given his leadership acumen and his consistent performance with the bat for the last year, DDCA decided to hand over the captaincy duties to the 20-year-old.

One of the youngest ever to captain Delhi, Dhull has been in prolific form in the Ranji Trophy. In his brief eight-match first-class career, Dhull has scored 820 runs at an average of 74.54 with four centuries under his belt.

As per ESPNCricinfo, the DDCA top brass wanted to materialize the tough transition period and Dhull was selected by virtue of his consistent performance with the bat and his leadership history.

"Somewhere we had to draw the line, we need to carry out a transition. Pradeep Sangwan, the last year's captain, had to be dropped as he hasn't been measuring up,” a source close to the DDCA selection committee was quoted as saying by PTI as per ESPN Cricinfo reports.

Delhi has named the squad for the first two games against Maharashtra and Assam and star pacer Ishant Sharma is part of the squad for both games.

"Ishant has also been given a couple of games. Let's hope he shoulders more responsibility," the source said.

Squad: Yash Dhull (capt), Himmat Singh (vice-capt), Dhruv Shorey, Anuj Rawat (wk), Vaibhav Rawal, Lalit Yadav, Nitish Rana, Ayush Badoni, Hrithik Shokeen, Shivank Vashisth, Vikas Mishra, Jonathyat Singh, Kumar

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Yash Dhull's heroics in the U19 World Cup

Under Yash Dhull's captaincy, India won the U19 World Cup earlier this year, beating England in the final.

Dhull had to miss a couple of games due to an COVID but scored consistently in the other four games.

He amassed 229 runs in 4 games at an average of 76.33 and played a pivotal role in India's semi-final win against Australia. He scored a run-a-ball 110 to set up the win.