Domestic Cricket: Dhruv Shorey Moves To Vidarbha From Delhi, Nitish Rana Applies For NOC

Delhi's top-order batter Dhruv Sorey will be playing for two-time Ranji Trophy winning team Vidarbha in 2023/24 domestic season, confirmed Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) CEO Farokh Dastoor. Apart from Shorey, left-handed batter Nitish Rana has also applied for the NOC to move from Delhi in the domestic cricket circuit, in what is seen as a huge double blow to the side who has won Ranji Trophy on seven occasions while winning Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy once.

"Yes, Dhruv Shorey will be playing for Vidarbha in the domestic season. NOC is received. Karun Nair is the other professional player signed up by Vidarbha," confirmed Dastoor to IANS.

In the last domestic season, Shorey scored 859 runs for Delhi while averaging 95.44 in the Ranji Trophy despite the side not qualifying for the knockouts. He was the fourth in the list of the highest run-scorers of the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy season after Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal (990), Saurashtra's Arpit Vasavada (907) and Bengal's Anustup Majumdar (867).

Of late, Shorey had been in and out of Delhi's playing eleven in Vijay Hazare Trophy, while his last appearance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy came way back in 2021.

"Dhruv has the right to choose for his career if he's got an offer from another state. Here, he was not able to be selected to the T20 team, though I know he's a wonderful and fantastic player. We wish him all the best wherever he goes," said Shyam Sharma, Director of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), to IANS.

Both Rana and Shorey had been the mainstays of the Delhi team, in the batting department.

Sharma added they are trying to be in touch with Rana. "We haven’t been able to speak to Nitish yet and are trying to be in touch with him. We will try to persuade him (to stay in Delhi) as he's one of the fantastic batters we have and Delhi has ever produced," he said.  

Rana, who captained Kolkata Knight Riders in the absence of Shreyas Iyer in IPL 2023, was a regular member of Delhi's white-ball side and even captained them. But he wasn't a regular player in last season’s Ranji Trophy campaign for Delhi.

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The left-handed batter, who also bowls part-time off-break, was left out of the Ranji Trophy team after recording scores of 14, 40, 0. Though he played in Delhi's win over Mumbai in January this year, Rana scored only 11 and six not out in the match before pulling out of his team's last Ranji Trophy fixture against Hyderabad.