KL Rahul played a crucial knock of 77 in the second innings of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener at the Optus Stadium in Perth to help India draw first blood in the series. He also chipped in with a 37-run knock in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval.
Karnataka have included India batter KL Rahul on their probable list for the forthcoming edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy which is slated to be played from December 21 to January 18.
Rahul is currently a part of India’s squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and is rendering his services down under. Known for his exploits in the middle order, Rahul has been asked to open the innings for Team India in the ongoing five-match series.
Notably, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) selectors have pulled the curtains down on Manish Pandey’s career for Karnataka. The 35-year-old has not been named among the Vijay Hazare probables and the KSCA men’s selection committee chairman J. Abhiram has confirmed that Pandey will not feature in Karnataka’s squad for the next leg of the Ranji Trophy.
“Manish has had a fantastic career; no doubt about it. But at some stage, you will have to make way for youngsters. We have a few exciting young batters – Prakhar Chaturvedi, Aneeshwar Gautam, K.V. Aneesh. The more opportunities they get, the better,” Abhiram told Sportstar.
“Pandey will not come back for the second leg of the Ranji Trophy. We have K.V. Aneesh in the reserves; he should come in. Now it is up to the youngsters to make full use of all chances.”
Abhiram revealed that the KSCA has already informed Pandey about their decision and the board wants him to stay connected and take up a coaching role.
“I had a word with Pandey, and I explained all the reasons for this decision. We would like him to stay connected with Karnataka cricket, perhaps as a coach or in any other role. It is very hard to have this sort of tough conversation. But this is the circle of life,” Abhiram mentioned.
Pandey has played 29 ODIs and 39 T20Is for India. The right-handed batter has scored 566 and 709 runs in ODIs and T20Is. He has a century and two fifties to his credit in ODIs and three half-centuries in the shortest format for India.
Pandey has aggregated 7973 runs in the first-class circuit at an average of 50.78 with the help of 25 hundreds and 32 fifties. He was also a part of the U19 World Cup-winning India squad in 2008.
Karnataka’s probable for the Vijay HazareTrophy:
K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Prasidh Krishna, Devdutt Padikkal, L.R. Chethan, Macneil Noronha, Shreyas Gopal, K.L. Shrijith, Abhinav Manohar, Manoj Bhandage, Hardik Raj, V. Koushik, Vidyadhar Patil, Shubhang Hegde, Abhilash Shetty, Mohsin Khan, R. Smaran, Luvnith Sisodia, V. Vyshak, Manvanth Kumar, Yashovardhan Parantap, Pravin Dubey, M. Venkatesh, Nikin Jose, K.V. Aneesh, K. Shashikumar, Paras Gurbax Arya, Shikhar Shetty, Kishan Bedare, Harshil Dharmani, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kruthik Krishna.
