Ranji Trophy: Consistency the key for Karnataka

BENGALURU: Much like the weather in the city, Karnataka's campaign in the Ranji Trophy thus far has been unpredictable. They have snatched victories from the jaws of dull draws on two occasions and on an equal number of instances have conceded full points from a position where they could have salvaged a draw or even fancied a win.
Inconsistent. That's a word that best describes the former champions performance.To their credit, they have been without their key players for the better part of the tournament with Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, R Samarth and K Gowtham all away on national or 'A' class duty. In fact, only three players - Shreyas Gopal, KV Siddharth and D Nischal - have featured in all the eight outings off the 23 players who made it to the XI during the league phase.
In such a scenario, Karnataka will have come together as a cohesive unit when they host the red-hot Rajasthan, the group 'C' toppers, in the quarterfinals starting at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Tuesday.
Rajasthan, led by the young Mahipal Lomror, have been in a league of their own this season, piling an incredible 51 points. They won seven of their nine matches (three with bonus points) and drew two contests but with the first-innings advantage.
Both the batsmen and the bowlers - who are without Pankaj Singh and Khaleel Ahmed - have come together admirable to revive the fortunes of Rajasthan which slipped after their back-to-back title triumphs in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
After an initial wobble, the seasoned Robin Bist, who will make his 100th first class appearance on Tuesday, has shouldered the batting responsibility and with 684 runs is their leading run-getter. He has been well supported by youngsters Lomror (616 runs) and Amitkumar Gautam (583 runs). Likewise, Ankit Chaudhary and Tanvir-ul-Haq (47 wickets apiece) have been the visitors' front-line bowlers with Rahul Chahar (36 wickets) being their most successful spin option.
HOME TEAM'S OPENING WOES
Given the non-availability of their key players, the Karnataka batting line-up has been inconsistent for the better part of the season with D Nischal (613) and KV Siddharth (651 runs) being their brightest sparks. To succeed against Rajasthan on the home pitch, which has traditionally been a sporting wicket, the home team will have to arrest their tendency to lose wickets early.
While Nischal has been the go-to opener, his partners have varied from R Samarth, Devdutt Padikkal to Mayank Agarwal and Shishir Bhavane. Barring the 121 and 150 opening-wicket stands in the second innings against Maharashtra and Railways respectively, the other 14 innings have been a disappointment with the highest being 38 (against Gujarat).
The other worrying factor for Karnataka is the form of the talented Samarth (5 matches, 115 runs, HS: 33) and the proven Karun (3 matches, 115 runs, HS: 63). The knockout match will be a good opportunity for the top order duo to showcase their wares.
Backing the duo to come good, skipper Pandey said, "They are big-match players. We have backed them before and they have really done well for Karnataka in the recent years. A couple of bad games doesn't define a player. It's just about bouncing back and rescuing Karnataka whenever we need them."
On the bowling front, Karnataka will continue to look up to in-form Ronit More to spearhead the pace attack alongside the experienced R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun or Prasidh Krishna and off-spinner K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal to deliver in the spin department.