Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019: Manish Pandey named captain, KL Rahul vice-captain of Karnataka's squad for first three matches

What's the story?

Karnataka have named a 15-man squad for the first three matches of the upcoming Vijay Hazare 2019 trophy, which includes India internationals Manish Pandey and KL Rahul, with the former set to lead the side for this season.

In case you didn't know...

The 2019 edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy will be the 18th edition of India's most prestigious domestic ODI competition and will be contested from 24th September to 25th October, with 35 teams set to participate across three elite groups and one plate group.

The Elite Group A matches will be held in Karnataka, Elite Group B matches will take place in Vadodara while the Elite Group C matches will be hosted in Jaipur. The Plate Group matches will be played at Dehradun.

Mumbai are the defending champions of the competition, having clinched the title courtesy of a four-wicket win over runners-up Delhi in the final at Bengaluru last year.

The heart of the matter

Fresh from their participation in the T20I series against South Africa, Manish Pandey and KL Rahul will undoubtedly add some solidity to Karnataka's batting line-up, which will also feature a host of exciting youngsters such as KV Siddharth, Devdutt Padikkal, wicket-keeper Sharath Srinivas and Abhishek Reddy, with the former two set to make their List-A debut this season.

The domestic cricket giants will also wear a formidable outlook with all-rounders such as Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Pavan Deshpande, and Pravin Dubey set to slot into the middle order while the bowling attack will be led by seasoned pacer Abhimanyu Mithun.

Apart from Mithun, experienced names such as Prasidh Krishna, Ronit More and V Koushik will also give skipper Pandey a whole lot of options to choose from on the bowling front before Karnataka step on to the field for their first match against Hyderabad.

However, the three-time champions will be without the presence of last season's skipper Vinay Kumar and prolific run-scorer Mayank Agarwal, with the former set to turn out for Puducherry while the latter will be off for national duty for the home Test series against South Africa.

Karnataka's squad for the first three matches -

Manish Pandey (C), KL Rahul (VC), Devdutt Padikkal, KV Siddharth, Pravin Dubey, Pavan Deshpande, Abhishek Reddy, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jagadeesha Suchith, Abhimanyu Mithun, Prasidh Krishna, Ronit More, Sharath Srinivas (WK), Shreyas Gopal, V Koushik.

What's next?

Karnataka will be taking on Hyderabad in the first match of their campaign at home on 24th September before they take on Jharkhand on 26th September and Chhattisgarh on 28th September.

Also See - Vijay Hazare Schedule 2019