All this in a year when Delhi won the Ranji Trophy and topped the North Zone group in the ODIs. The complete lack of confidence in the coach and skipper does go to show that this Ranji win hasn’t changed matters in the DDCA at all.

Both Gambhir and Dahiya, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue indicating that the matter now rests with DDCA president Arun Jaitely, but admitted that they were unaware of the final squad. It’s very clear that Gambhir and Dahiya are miffed over the treatment meted out to them and strangely, the official DDCA release states that the team has been unanimously chosen.

Ironically, Gambhir, who was away in Vizag playing Deodhar Trophy, was specially flown in by the DDCA for his inputs.

But when the India opener asked for one-day specialist off-spinner Ajit Chandela, there were disagreements. Fingers were pointed at chairman of selection committee, Chetan Chauhan, after sources revealed that there were differences even among the three other selectors — Vivek Razdan, Vinay Lamba and Manu Nayyar — on the issue.

Last learnt, there’s a gag order on the selectors to speak on the issue.

Incidentally, just hours after Sportline highlighted the utter neglect of under-15 World Cup winning member Pradeep Chawla, the wicket-keeper-bat found himself rehabilitated with a surprise inclusion in the 15-member squad.

However, Parvinder Awana, the second highest wicket-taker in the league stages, has been left out. In all, five changes were made to the squad that won four out of five league matches.

Narender Sharma’s selection (ahead of Chandela) was even more surprising because — even if you take Chandela out of the equation — there was a fair case to be made for Suhail Sharma, who had been quite economical in the two Ranji one-dayers he played.

Also joining them on the sidelines are batsmen Aditya Jain, Manan Sharma and Punit Bisht, who make way for Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Pradeep Sangwan and Pradeep Chawla.