Star Indian batsman included in Karnataka squad

Karnataka has received a major boost as inform KL Rahul has been added to the squad for the semi-finals clash of Ranji Trophy against Bengal to be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata from 29^th February.

Since December 2019, Rahul has been in sensational form in the limited-overs format. KL Rahul showed great form during the T20I series against New Zealand where he was the leading runs scorer with 224 runs from 5 matches and helped Men in Blue register a historic whitewash over the hosts.

Rahul continued his superb form in the 3 match ODI series and was the 2^nd highest scorer with 204 runs from 3 matches which included 1 half-century and 1 century. During the ODI series, he came at number 5 and played superb knocks. Despite his efforts, India were whitewashed 0-3 in the 50 overs format.

During the T20I series against Kiwis, he opened the innings and gave the team flying starts which helped them to post decent totals. In his last 10 innings combined ODIs and T20Is, Rahul has scored one century and four fifty-plus scores.

Karnataka registered an emphatic 167 runs win over Jammu and Kashmir in the fourth quarterfinals played at Jammu. After being bowled out for 206, Prasidh Krishna 4 wicket haul helped Karnataka bowl out Jammu and Kashmir 14 runs short of the target.

In the quarterfinals match against Jammu and Kashmir, Pandey scored 37 and 35 runs. The return of KL Rahul will bolster Karnataka’s chances. Rahul would be looking to continue to display his skills and help Karnataka qualify for the finals.

Karnataka had already won the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Trophy for 2019/20. KL Rahul played a key role in both these tournaments.

In the 1^st semi-finals, Gujarat will take on last year’s finalists Saurashtra to be played at SCA Stadium, Rajkot. Parthiv Patel from Gujarat, Jaydev Undakat (Saurashtra) and Manoj Tiwary ( Bengal) are the other prominent names included.

Here we look at Karnataka squad for the semi-finals against Bengal

Devdutt Paddikal, R Samarth, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair (C), Shreyas Gopal, K Gowtham, Abhimanyu Mithun, KV Siddarth, Prasidh Krishna, J Suchith, Prateek Jain, Ronit More and BS Sharath.