The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Delhi drops veteran Amit Bhandari

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Delhi drops veteran Amit Bhandari

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Amit Bhandari, after having served Delhi for 13 years, was on Friday dropped for the crucial Ranji Trophy super league match against Mumbai to be held at the Ferozeshah Kotla here from Sunday.

The writing was on the wall for the 30-year-old Bhandari, who was not included in the playing XI for the last match against Hyderabad where Delhi ended conceding the first innings lead. Hurt by the team management’s decision, Bhandari had reportedly conveyed his displeasure to the selectors.

“I have been serving Delhi cricket as loyally as any one else and I deserved a better treatment from colleagues who I have known for more than a decade. None deemed it fit to communicate the decision to me that I was being dropped from the XI in the match against Hyderabad. Suddenly I felt unwanted,” said Bhandari, who has 314 first-class wickets to his credit.

“I told them (selectors) not to pick me if I did not deserve a place in the XI. I can’t just sit in the dressing room if they think I am a liability. I am not unfit, I have been taking wickets to justify my place, I am as committed as the rest. Being the senior-most I did not deserve this humiliation,” added Bhandari, who was Delhi’s highest wicket-taker in one-day cricket last season.

Horses for courses

Reacting to the decision, Delhi selection committee chairman Chetan Chauhan said, “We don’t want to show disrespect to a senior player like Amit. He has done very well for Delhi. It is horses for courses and we will call him when we need him. It is not the end of the journey for him. We didn’t want to pick him and then keep him in the reserves.”

The team: Aakash Chopra (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht, Chetanya Nanda, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Parvinder Awana, Aditya Jain, Sumit Narhwal, Yogesh Nagar, Gaurav Chhabra, Mayank Tehlan and Narender Singh.

Coach: Vijay Dahiya.

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