Karnataka announce squad for Ranji Trophy opener

What's the story?

The Karnataka state cricket team announced a 16 member squad for their Ranji Trophy opener against Assam which will be held from October 14-17 in Mysuru.

The squad boasts a mix of youth and experience but has a few big names missing out as well.

KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair all miss out on the opening game due to their various commitments to the national sides.

Here is the squad:

Vinay Kumar R (c), Samarth R, Abhishek Reddy, Mayank Agarwal, Mir Kaunain Abbas, Pavan Deshpande, Gautam CM (wk), Stuart Binny, Gowtham K, Mithun A, S Arvind, Shreyas Gopal, Suchith J, Nischal D, Sharath Srinivas (wk), Ronit More.

Coach: Shashikanth PV.

Assistant coach: Anil Kumar GK.

Manager: B Siddaramu.

Physio: Jaba Prabhu.

Trainer: Prashanth Pujar.

Video analyst: M Srinivas.

Masseur: Atanu Ghosh.

Logistics manager: A Ramesh Rao.

In case you didn't know...

KL Rahul and Manish Pandey will miss out on the action due to their commitment to the Indian T20I side.

Both of them are included in the squad for the three T20Is, with India winning the first one on October 7. The T20I series ends on October 13 after which there will be a nine-day break before the Men in Blue are back in action again.

Meanwhile, Karun Nair has been included in the Board President XI side to take on New Zealand ahead of the ODI series against them.

The details:

The squad is also bolstered by the presence of Abhishek Reddy, who had suffered a career threating anterior cruciate ligament injury during the Karnataka Premier League in 2016.

He marked his return to the sport with an unbeaten 201 for President's XI in the Safi Darashah tournament in July and followed it up with another ton for KSCA XI in the Dr Thimmappaiah All-India tournament.

Meanwhile, Vinay Kumar will continue to captain the side as they look to achieve their first trophy in two years.

Unfortunately, Karnataka will have to do without the services of Robin Uthappa, who made the switch to Saurashtra for this season.

What's next?

India's big names will miss out on the action in the third round of fixtures as well with both Pandey and Rahul expected to be a part of the ODI squad to take on New Zealand.

Author's take:

Despite the absence of the star players, Karnataka have a lot of strong players in the squad, a few of which have had a decent run in the tournaments leading up to the Ranji Trophy.

Most of the players who are included had a huge part to play in the recently concluded KPL and a few of them will look to carry on their good form from the tournament into the Ranji Trophy as well.