Domestic players like Pragyan Ojha, Shreyas Iyer to participate in KSCA tournament

Many top players from India will be seen in action from July 22 at the Dr (Captain) K Thimmappaiah Memorial All India Invitational Cricket Tournament organised by Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) in Bangalore and Mysore. The final will played on 15th August after three group matches and two semi-finals between the four group winners.

All matches will be a normal 4-day fixture like Ranji Trophy and 16 teams from all over the country will battle it out for prestigious honours. The hosts association have 3 teams representing them and there is a side from the National Cricket Academy as well. Apart from KSCA XI, the two other local clubs are namely KSCA President’s XI and KSCA Colts

The teams are divided into four groups and toppers from each pool will qualify for the Semi-finals. Many former India players like Pragyan Ojha, Manoj Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, and upcoming talents like Armaan Jaffer and Shreyas Iyer will be turning out at this tournament.

Mumbai Cricket Association, Baroda Cricket Association, Haryana CA, Himachal CA, Andhra CA, Goa CA, Kerala CA, Assam CA, Tripura CA, Odisha CA, Cricket Association of Bengal and Dr DY Patil side are the teams invited for the tournament.

This is the only competition in the country where matches will be played over four-day duration other than the Ranji Trophy. The competition is likely to serve as an ideal preparation for all the teams before Ranji Trophy, organisers of the tournament said.

“The tournament will be played on the lines of the Ranji Trophy to provide ample opportunities to cricketers to accustom themselves to the Ranji Trophy format. The only shift from the Ranji Trophy rule will be the penalty for slow over-rate, which will be six runs per over in this tournament unlike monetary penalty, ” a KSCA official said in a media release.

The matches are scheduled to be played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, RSI, Alur, RWF, Aditya and BGS grounds in Bengaluru. The Mysore leg of matches will be played at Gangothri Glades and JNSC grounds.

Pools

Group A: KSCA XI, Haryana CA, Odisha CA, Tripura CA

Group B: KSCA President’s XI, Cricket Association of Bengal, Goa Cricket Association, Himachal Pradesh

Group C: Mumbai CA, National Cricket Academy, Kerala CA, Assam CA (Mysore leg)

Group D: KSCA Colts, Baroda CA, Andhra CA, Dr D.Y. Patil

Teams

KSCA XI: C.M. Gautam (Capt. & wk), Mayank Agarwal, R. Samarth, Abhishek Reddy, Shishir Bhavane, K.V. Siddharth, Shreyas Gopal, Abrar Kazi, Ronit More, David Mathias, S.L. Akshay, K. Gowtham, M.G. Naveen, Rohith Gowda, V. Koushik; Coach: J. Arun Kumar.

KSCA President’s XI: K.B. Pawan (Capt.), D. Nischal, Mir Kaunain Abbas, Liyan Khan, Anirudha Joshi, Sadiq Kirmani (wk), K.C. Cariappa, J. Suchith, Prasidh Krishna, H.S. Sharath, Aditya Somanna, Satish Bharadwaj, V. Vijaya Kumar, Anurag Bajpai, Rohan Kadam; Coach: P.V. Shashikanth.

KSCA Colts: Pavan Deshpande (Capt.), Nikin Jose, Arjun Hoysala, Abhinav Manohar, Naga Bharath, G.S. Chiranjeevi (wk), Mitrakant Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Pratheek Jain, Bhavesh Gulecha, Sharan Gowda, Zeeshan Ali Sayyed, Milind V. Ramesh, B.R. Sharath, Likith Bannur; Coach: G.K. Anil Kumar. — Principal Correspondent

Bengal – Manoj Tiwary (c), Sudip Chatterjee (v-c), Satyabrata Murmu, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prosenjit Das, Pankaj Shaw, Koushik Ghosh, Writtick Chatterjee, Ritwik Roychowdhury, Veer Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Aamir Gani, Mukesh Kumar, Amit Kuila, Ishan Porel, Agniv Pan.

(More to follow...)