Ranganath Vinay Kumar

When Ranganath Vinay Kumar was handed the coveted Karnataka Ranji Trophy cap on November 7, 14 summers ago, he was a small-town boy with king-sized dreams. Although his team lost in his debut match — against Bengal in Kolkata — Vinay claimed a match haul of five wickets and his career took wings.

Bidding to create a pool of quality bowling coaches, the NCA recently had an internship programme where well-known names like Lakshmipathy Balaji, Ranganath Vinay Kumar and Pankaj Singh upgraded their coaching skills under Ashes-winning mentor Troy Cooley.

Two-time IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders came into the 2018 auction with a purse of Rs 59 crore. They ended up splurging the entire amount to buy 17 players in addition to the West Indian duo of Andre Russel and Sunil Narine whom they had retained.

The Parthiv Patel-led Rest of India start as firm favourites against a disjointed Rajasthan outfit as the two teams square up for the Irani Cup match.

"We have left Jadeja out due as we wanted to check out how Rahul does in longer format. We have seen Jadeja that's why it was time to check out a new guy," one of the national selectors said.

When Ranganath Vinay Kumar was handed the coveted Karnataka Ranji Trophy cap on November 7, 14 summers ago, he was a small-town boy with king-sized dreams.

The mega two-day Indian Premier 2018 auction is over. Across Saturday and Sunday, the eight franchisees assembled under one roof to rebuild their squad for the upcoming season of the cash-rich IPL. Here are the squads of the eight teams after the auction

Aiming to complete a hat-trick of titles, the formidable Mumbai Indians will face an imposing challenge from the Rising Pune Supergiant in what promises to be a riveting 'Grand Finale' of the 10th Indian Premier League, on Sunday.