Pandey to lead K’taka

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Friday named a 20-member squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy beginning on December 8. Manish Pandey will lead the team with top-order batsman R Samarth being his deputy.
Karnataka have gone with a largely tried and tested squad and most of the players were part of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, in which Karnataka lost a last-ball thriller to Tamil Nadu in the final in New Delhi earlier this week.Karnataka will play their Elite group B fixtures in Thiruvananthapuram.
Among the changes, Nihal Ullal has made way for fellow wicketkeeper Sharath Srinivas while medium-pacer Venkatesh M has got his maiden call-up. Abhinav Manohar, the find of the T20 tournament, has been included along with Nischal D, who missed the T20 bus.
Among the surprise exclusions is seasoned pacer Ronit More, who missed the T20 competition as he was recovering from injury. Also failing to make the cut was Aniruddha Joshi, who had a rather forgettable Mushtaq Ali tournament.
Karnataka have named five specialist spinners – Suchith J, Shreyas Gopal, Cariappa KC, Pravin Dubey and Ritesh Bhatkal. As many as six pacers are in the mix with Prateek Jain and V Koushik being the most experienced.
Karnataka, who last won the title in the 2019-20 season, are in the group of death with Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Baroda, Bengal and Pondicherry in Group B. The former champions begin their campaign against Pondicherry.
Squad: Manish Pandey (C), Rohan Kadam, Samarth R (VC), Karun Nair, Siddharth K V, Abhinav Manohar, Nischal D, Sharath BR (WK), Sharath Srinivas (WK), Suchith J, Shreyas Gopal, Cariappa K C, Ritesh Bhatkal, Pravin Dubey, Vidyadhar Patil, Koushik V, Prateek Jain, Darshan M B, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Venkatesh M. Head coach: Yere K Goud; Bowling coach:Sreenath Arvind; Fielding coach: Deepak A Chougule; Physio: Jaba Prabhu; Strength & Conditioning coach: A T Rajamani Prabhu; Masseur: Somasundar C M; Video Analyst: Vinod Kumar M S; Manager: Anutosh Poll.Fixtures: December 8: vs Pondicherry; Dec 9: vs Tamil Nadu; Dec 11: vs Mumbai; Dec 12: vs Baroda; Dec 14: vs Bengal