An injury to R. Vinay Kumar has given an opportunity to Karun Nair to lead the Karnataka side in their second Ranji Trophy game against Delhi at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Vinay Kumar, who was announced the captain of the team for the whole season picked up a calf strain in the first Ranji Trophy game against Jharkhand, as a result he bowled only 2..3 overs in the first game. Vinay Kumar is not yet fit to participate in Karnataka’s second fixture and a final decision will be made on the eve of the game.
Meanwhile, the Board has handed over the captaincy to Karun Nair who was earlier announced as the vice-captain of the squad. “I think it’s a huge honor for me to be captaining Karnataka. It’s a huge state and a lot of legends have led Karnataka. I’m really honored to lead Karnataka and I want to express myself and do my best,” said an elated Karun Nair.
Nair was pretty much confident that other youngsters will be able to fill the boots of Vinay Kumar as he said: “We will surely miss him but I think there are others that can take up his role and they are really excited to do well,”.
Surely, captaincy will be a great boost for Nair as he is currently on the fringe of getting a place in playing XI in the Indian Test team. He has a direct competition with his rival captain Gautam Gambhir and his statemate KL Rahul for that one spot. Now, this is a direct battle between two captains not only for the game but also for that one opening spot as in case if KL Rahul is not fit for England Test series as well, then the captain who performs well in this game will get a place in playing XI. However, Nair has to score big here as in case Gambhir also scores here, then Gambhir will be given the nod ahead of him and KL Rahul as well.
Karnataka will have a tough job against Delhi as they have likes of Gautam Gambhir , Ishant Sharma, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant in their squad. Though, they will be missing on the services of Navdeep Saini and Pradeep Sangwan who bowled well in first two fixtures.
Karnataka’s success will mainly depend on upon Karun Nair, Robin Uthappa, Abhimanyu Mithun, Stuart Binny and Shreyas Gopal.