Karun Nair named captain of 20-man Karnataka squad for 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Defending champions Karnataka on Sunday named Karun Nair as the captain of their 20-member squad for the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali season.

Pavan Deshpande, who earlier today led the Vultures CC to the title win in the KSCA T20 League Tournament 2020 has been named as Nair's deputy. Big names such as KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal are notable absentees owing to national duty, while Manish Pandey has been ruled out of the tournament due to a tennis elbow injury.

However, in their absence, IPL stars Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Krishnappa Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal have been included in the 20-man squad which is certain to see Karnataka walk into the tournament as favourites.

Youngsters KL Shrijith, Shubhang Hegde earn call-ups to Karnataka squad for SMAT 2021

Budding wicket-keeper batsman KL Shrijith, who top-scored in the recently concluded T20 League has earned a maiden call-up to the senior state side. Shrijith scored 203 runs from five matches at a strike rate of 133.55 and played a massive hand in Vultures CC's campaign.

Apart from Shrijith, left-arm spinner Shubhang Hegde, who represented India at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup has also been named in the Karnataka team.

Karnataka have been placed in Group A alongside Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Railways, Jammu & Kashmir and Tripura, and the Nair-led side will play their group stage matches at Alur Grounds.

Karnataka squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali 2021 season

Karun Nair (C), Pavan Deshpande (VC), Devdutt Padikkal, Roham Kadam, KV Siddharth, KL Shrijith, BR Sharath, Anirudha Joshi, Shreyas Gopal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jagadeesha Suchith, Pravin Dubey, Abhimanyu Mithun, Prasidh Krishna, Prateek Jain, V Koushik, Ronit More, Darshan MB, Manoj Bhandage, Shubhang Hegde.