Pant, Dhawan & Saini confirm availability for Vijay Hazare

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) India players Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan and Navdeep Saini have confirmed their availability for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The move comes as a big boost for Delhi going into the tournament which will be played from September 24 to October 13.

It will be interesting to see how many games Pant does manage to play because the Test series against South Africa starts on October 2. While Dhawan is not in the scheme of things as far as the longer format is considered, Saini wasn't picked for the series against Proteas. Pant though will be a part of the three-match series that will see India play their second series in the World Test Championship.

Hailing the move, DDCA President Rajat Sharma said: "It's really heartening to see that Rishabh, Shikhar and Navdeep opted to play for Delhi at first available opportunity. Virat and Ishant also want to help Delhi cricket and I am sure they will also take the field whenever possible.

"It was a promise they made to all Delhi cricket fans at the Annual Awards recently. It shows that DDCA and the players are on the same page to take Delhi cricket to greater heights and win titles."

DDCA took to Twitter to make the announcement of the trio's availability and said that the senior selection committee will finalise the Delhi squad shortly.

Former stars like Sunil Gavaskar have always been vocal about how India players should be a part of domestic tournaments when not playing for the country. "If the Indian team has to do well, players have to be in prime form and for that they have to play cricket," he had said.