Arunachal changes guest players’ list to include little-known Delhi batsman

A little-known Delhi player’s inclusion in Ranji debutant Arunachal Pradesh’s list of guest players has come under the scanner with the team struggling to explain why he was picked over more accomplished domestic cricketers.

The Arunachal Cricket Association has included Kshitiz Sharma in their list replacing one of the original three players for their debut domestic season.

In fact, Kshitiz was also picked by Chennai Super Kings at the lowest base price of Rs 20 lakh despite failing miserably in the couple of Vijay Hazare Trophy (National One Dayers) matches. Kshitiz didn’t get any game in the IPL.

His record in senior representative cricket stands at six runs from two List ‘A’ games and 111 runs from 11 T20 games at an average of 13.87 and a strike-rate of less than 100.

However, much to the surprise of the BCCI’s Cricket Operations team, Arunachal mailed a letter on August 27 to seek a replacement.

The Cricket Operations team had then asked Arunachal CA to take approval from GM (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim for any late replacement.

“Yes, I have approved Kshitiz’s name as BCCI extended the inter-state transfer of guest players till September 15 only for the new states,” Karim said on Tuesday.

However, when Arunachal CA top boss Tado Kholi was contacted, he failed to come up with a convincing reply as to why a 28-year-old little known Delhi cricketer was named as replacement.

“Well, we thought of replacing one player as we thought that we needed someone with experience of having played Ranji Trophy,” Kholi said.

When told that Kshitiz has not played any Ranji Trophy and only two 50over matches, he said: “I didn’t know that. I haven’t seen any of the players till now. May be we can use him for U-23 matches also.”