Devdutt Padikkal set to captain Karnataka instead of Mayank Agarwal
The South Indian outfit will face Punjab in their round 7 tie from January 29
KL Rahul included in the squad; Karun Nair set to be absent due to injury
Devdutt Padikkal on Monday replaced Mayank Agarwal as Karnataka skipper ahead of their last Ranji Trophy league match against Punjab, beginning at Mullanpur from January 29.
Agarwal was retained in the role of a senior batter in the 15-man squad which also featured India players KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna.
This will be Rahul’s first Ranji match after playing against Haryana in January 2025.
Agarwal endured a middling season so far, scoring 298 runs in nine innings at an average of 33, with a century and two fifties.
Devdutt made 96 and 15 in the season’s first match against Saurashtra at Rajkot before moving away for national duties.
But his return to Ranji circuit was less than delightful, making two ducks against MP at Alur last week.
However, he did have a wonderful run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, making 725 runs from nine innings at a stunning average of 90.62.
Ravichandran Smaran, who missed the previous league game against Madhya Pradesh here because of a shoulder niggle, has made a comeback.
However, senior batter Karun Nair will miss the contest after suffering a webbing injury during the match against Madhya Pradesh.
Nair did not bat in Karnataka’s second innings as Nikin Jose came in as a concussion substitute in the match which the hosts lost by a whopping 197-run margin.
Karnataka (21 points) are placed third in Group B behind Maharashtra (24) and MP (22), and need to beat Punjab to enter the knockout phase without going through the agony of mathematical calculations.
