Nitish Rana to captain Delhi in 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, no place for Digvesh Rathi

New Delhi: Nitish Rana has been named as Delhi’s captain for the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, while wrist-spinner Digvesh Rathi has missed out on selection for the competition slated to begin on November 26.

Delhi have been placed in Elite Group D alongside Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra, and Tripura, with all of their matches scheduled to take place in Ahmedabad. The team has won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy only once – in the 2017–18 season under the captaincy of Pradeep Sangwan.

This will be the first time Rana will turn out for Delhi in the ongoing domestic season after moving on from Uttar Pradesh and not featuring in the playing eleven for the first half of the Ranji Trophy, where the side was unable to win any matches.

Rana, who will also turn out for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2026 following his trade from Rajasthan Royals, hit scores of 134 not out, 45 not out, and 79 not out to help West Delhi Lions win the 2025 Delhi Premier League (DPL) title.

Incidentally, during Qualifier 1 of DPL 2025, Rana was in an exchange of words with Rathi, which went viral online. Rathi had been one of the uncapped finds for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2025 – picking 14 wickets at an economy rate of 7.59.

But it seems that a not so bright DPL 2025 resulted in his omission from Delhi’s squad picked by the selection committee of Yashpal Singh, K. Bhaskar Pillai and Manu Nayar, with head coach Sarandeep Singh, CAC Chairman Vijay Dahiya and DDCA Secretary Ashok Sharma being present in the meeting.

Veteran pacer Ishant Sharma’s selection is subject to availability, with sources telling LatestNewsX that he’s recovering from an injury and was present for rehab at the BCCI CoE facility in Bengaluru. It’s the same case with senior fast bowler Navdeep Saini, who is also dealing with an injury issue that limited his participation in the Ranji Trophy.

While all-rounder Harshit Rana is also subject to availability, it’s more to do with him being in fray for selection in India’s upcoming white-ball games – three ODIs and five T20Is – against South Africa. Opener Priyansh Arya and leg-spinner Suyash Sharma will join the Delhi side after India A’s campaign in the Rising Asia Cup in Doha ended in a lame semi-final defeat to Bangladesh A.

Apart from notable names like Ayush Badoni, Yash Dhull, Himmat Singh, Anuj Rawat, Harsh Tyagi and Prince Yadav, lots of DPL stars like Arpit Rana, Sarthak Ranjan, Tejasvi Dahiya, Ayush Doseja, Money Grewal, and Simarjeet Singh have been included in Delhi’s squad, who are likely to leave for Ahmedabad either on Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Delhi squad: Nitish Rana (captain), Priyansh Arya, Sarthak Ranjan, Ayush Badoni, Arpit Rana, Ayush Doseja, Mayank Rawat, Tejasvi (wk), Anuj Rawat (wk), Himmat Singh, Yash Dhull, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Dagar, Yash Bhatia, Ankit Rajesh Kumar, Harsh Tyagi, Suyash Sharma, Prince Yadav, Money Grewal, Rohan Rana, Dhruv Kaushik, Aryan Rana and Vaibhav Kandpal.