Karnataka announce 20-member squad for Ranji Trophy quarterfinal, Manish Pandey to lead

Domestic giant Karnataka have announced a 20-member squad for their quarterfinal clash in the 2022 Ranji Trophy against Uttar Pradesh (UP). The contest is slated to start on June 6 (Monday) at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur. Despite a few big names missing, the Karnataka squad looks strong on paper.

The likes of KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna will not play in the quarterfinal match. Rahul will be captaining the Indian team in the five-T20I series against South Africa. Similarly, pacer Krishna has been picked for the fifth re-scheduled Test match against England.

It may be noted that the Indian squad is scheduled to leave for England in the third week of June. However, the right-arm pacer Krishna has been advised to skip the game to manage his workload. With Krishna out of the Karnataka team, seamer V Koushik has been named in the squad to boost Karnataka’s pace attack. The 29-year-old has played only three first-class games so far and last featured in the 2019-20 season.

Senior batter Manish Pandey will lead the Karnataka side

Karnataka name 20-member team for #RanjiTrophy Prasidh not part of the team, @koushikfeddy19 makes a comeback.. looks like a balanced team with the available resources pic.twitter.com/9Q7HatciP6

— Manuja (@manujaveerappa) May 31, 2022

Karnataka spin department looks quite strong as well with Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, J Suchith, and KC Cariappa in their squad. Similarly, the likes of Mayank Agarwal, captain Manish Pandey, R Samarth, Karun Nair, and Devdutt Padikkal have gained a lot of experience and will look to perform well for their State in the upcoming match.

It must be noted that Mayank, Manish, and Devdutt did not have a great season in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Hence, they will want to rectify their mistakes and score some runs for their team to help themselves to secure a semi-final berth.

Karnataka squad: Manish Pandey (C), Samarth R (VC), Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair, Siddharth KV, Nischal D, Sharath Srinivas (WK), Sharath B R (WK), Shreyas Gopal, Gowtham K, Shubhang Hegde, Suchith J, Cariappa KC, Ronit More, Koushik V, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Venkatesh M, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kishan S Bedare.