Ishant Sharma left out of Ranji squad for not answering phone call

New Delhi, September 24 - Delhi have not picked fast bowler Ishant Sharma for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season as he did not respond to the chief selector's phone call.

"(He) didn't answer our call nor responded to my text," selection committee chairman Vinay Lamba was quoted as saying by cricinfo.com.

Ishant, who bowled brilliantly in the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka, has not been picked in India's limited-over teams for the upcoming home series against South Africa.

He should be available to play domestic cricket until the Tests, which begin in the first week of November, but Delhi have decided to sideline the speedster.

"He is our senior bowler, how can we say that about him? But we tried to get in touch with him yesterday, but he didn't respond. I left a text, but didn't get a reply," Lamba said.

Another surprise was that all-rounder Rajat Bhatia too was left out of the squad which will be captained by Gautam Gambhir.

Bhatia has been an asset for Delhi over the last few years and averaged 34 with the bat for a total of 305 runs and 23 with the ball for a tally of 12 wickets in the Ranji Trophy last season.

Delhi squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Unmukt Chand (vice-captain), Vaibhav Rawal, Milind Kumar, Kshitij Rana, Yogesh Nagar, Dhruv Shaurya, Manan Sharma, Pulkit Narang, Mohit Ahlawat (wicketkeeper), Parvinder Awana, Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Pawan Suyal, Sarang Rawat