Guwahati, Nov. 1: The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) today not only sacked Gokul Sharma as the skipper, but also dropped him from the state Ranji team which has been putting up a dismal show in the group B league so far in the season.

The ACA also rested top-order batsman Pallav Das from the squad that will play against Saurashtra in Calcutta from November 5 to 8.

The association's spokesman, Muktabul Hussain, said Sharma and Das had been rested for the match in view of their poor form in the season so far and hoped they regain their form for the remaining two matches of the league.

"The duo have been replaced by paceman Pritam Das and middle-order batsman Amit Sinha. The captain's baton has been handed over to Arun Karthick and Abu Nechim Ahmed will be his deputy," Hussain added.

Assam, who were semi-finalists last season, have been languishing at the bottom of the table with only one point from four matches. Assam were handed an innings defeat by Delhi and Rajasthan at Vadodara and Visakhapatnam and a 10-wicket defeat by Karnataka in Mumbai.

The only point came from the drawn match against Vidarbha at Thiruvananthapuram, where the opponents bagged three by virtue of a first-innings lead.

A section of ACA insiders and affiliate district units have also started demanding the dismissal or resignation of head coach Sunil Joshi and his assistants in view of the poor show by the team.

The ACA has, however, owned responsibility for the disastrous show with office-bearers admitting that it was partially due to lack of match exposure in the pre-season.

The Assam team skipped the KSCA Gold Cup and Buchi Babu Tournament ahead of the Ranji league. Though the team participated in the JP Atray Trophy Tournament in Chandigarh, they got only two matches in it while two others were washed out.

Though a local tournament was organised to give match practice to the players, lack of exposure to wickets outside the state has been another factor responsible for the debacles.