By Admin 
It was against Pondicherry in the opening game of the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season that Yash Dhull last led Delhi.
On that occasion, a numbing nine-wicket loss for the seven-time champion resulted in the skipper facing the ire. Dhull was relieved of leadership duties in the aftermath, and had to essentially get back to scoring runs as expected of a top-order batter.
Having strung together a run of good scores since that low ebb, it is a matter of mere coincidence that the responsibility of captaining Delhi has fallen on the 22-year-old’s young shoulders just as Pondicherry visits again for an Elite Group-D encounter at the Arun Jaitley Stadium from Saturday.
The former India under-19 World Cup-winning skipper, however, is just deputising for Ayush Badoni, who is involved in India-A’s first four-day game against South Africa-A at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
It is, nevertheless, a timely opportunity for Dhull to exhibit his evolution over the past 12 months. He was in fine fettle in the drawn contest against Himachal Pradesh last week, scoring two eye-catching half-centuries as the host took the first-innings honours. Delhi looked set to seal an outright win on the last day, but the Himachal pair of Ankush Bains and Pukhraj Mann succeeded in thwarting the ambitions of Badoni & Co. on a banal pitch. So far, Delhi’s two games have yielded three points each on account of securing the first-innings lead.
If it is to break its recent drought and enter the knockouts this season, it will have to aim for full points against Pondicherry.
The southern side, led by 39-year-old left-arm spinner Sagar Udeshi, has had to grapple with patchy results at the start of the new season. It is languishing in the lower half of Group D with just two points from two consecutive draws against Himachal and Hyderabad.