Manish Pandey replaces Vinay Kumar as Karnataka captain for Vijay Hazare Trophy

India batsman Manish Pandey has been named as Karnataka captain in place of R. Vinay Kumar for the remaining four matches of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Pandey has been released from national duty after India won the Asia Cup in the UAE on Friday. He got to play only one match for the Men in Blue against Afghanistan during the tournament, in which he managed to score just 8.

Karnataka are being forced to make this move having suffered three defeats from four matches in the domestic List A tournament so far. The defending champions are languishing in the bottom half of the table, with just 2 points against their name. If Karnataka lose to Vidarbha when the two sides meet on Sunday, they will be knocked out of the competition.

Manish Pandey has had a successful stint as captain – he recently led India B to victory in the Quadrangular Series involving Australia A and South Africa A. “We wanted to build a team for the future,” KSCA Secretary R. Sudhakar Rao said. “This is only for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The selectors wanted to see how he does.”

Who have been benched?

In the squad that was announced on Friday, wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam and all-rounder Stuart Binny have also been benched. However, Rao was reluctant to say that it was due to the duo’s poor form of late, and simply mentioned that it was to ‘give them a break.’

Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna have been roped into the Board President’s XI that will play West Indies in a warm-up fixture ahead of the 2-match Test series. The trio hence does not figure in the revised Karnataka squad. Meanwhile, batsman Anirudha Joshi, all-rounder Mir Kaunain Abbas and paceman T. Pradeep have been given the nod.

Karnata squad for remaining Vijay Hazare Trophy matches: Manish Pandey (C); R. Vinay Kumar, R. Samarth, Anirudha Joshi, Pavan Deshpande, K. Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, A. Mithun, Mir Kaunain Abbas, J. Suchith, Abhishek Reddy, T. Pradeep, M.G. Naveen, B.R. Sharath, Sharath Srinivas.

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.