Out-of-favour India Test batsman Karun Nair will be leading Karnataka in the upcoming Ranji Trophy season. He will be assisted by all-rounder Shreyas Gopal. The selectors might retain Nair as captain even on Manish Pandey’s return as India will play Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand in January, which means Pandey will miss number of Ranji Trophy matches. He will be back for the second round if Karnataka qualify but will be absent for a major part of the league stage.
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Nair led the team for the first time in 2016/17 season in R Vinay Kumar’s absence. Last year, Pandey had replaced Vinay Kumar during the season and continued to lead the team across formats.
Karnataka’s squad includes India Test opener Mayank Agarwal and man-in-form, Devdutt Padikkal. The left-handed batsman has had a brilliant season so far. He finished with 609 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and followed up with 580 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – he finished as highest run-scorer in both the tournaments.
Much will depend on India A batsman Ravikumar Samarth and Dega Nischal. All-rounders Krishnappa Gowtham and Jagadeesha Suchith are also a part of the team but only of these two might be part of the playing XI.
Abhimanyu Mthin and Prasidh Krishna will not be available for the first game due to fitness issues. In their absence, Ronit More will lead the pace attack. Karnataka will open their campaign against Tamil Nadu in Dindigul from December 9.
The two teams met each other in the finals of Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – Karnataka won on both the occasions.
Squad: Karun Nair (Captain), Shreyas Gopal (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Dega Nischal, Ravikumar Samarth, Pavan Deshpande, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jagadeesha Suchith, BR Sharath (wk), Sharath Srinivas (wk), Ronit More, David Mathias, V Koushik, KS Devaiah.
Dhruv Shorey to lead Delhi –
Senior batsman Dhruv Shorey will lead Delhi in the Ranji Trophy 2019/20. He will be assisted by Nitish Rana, who led the team in the previous season. Navdeep Saini, who missed out on selection in the India squad, will have a chance to prove his fitness in the opening fixture. He might return for Sri Lanka T20Is next month.
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There was no Ishant Sharma in the squad for the opening game of the season. Delhi take on Sachin Baby-led Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram from December 9.
Squad: Delhi team: Dhruv Shorey (Captain), Nitish Rana (vice-captain), Kunal Chandela, Anuj Rawat (wk), Jonty Sidhu, Lalit Yadav, Shivam Sharma, Vikas Mishra, Tejas Baroka, Pradeep Sangwan, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Suyal, Kunwar Bidhuri, Hiten Dalal, Shivank Vashisht