Vijay Hazare Trophy: Karun Nair to lead Karnataka in knockouts

Karnataka in their last pool game of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy managed to beat the Railways and made their way into the knockout round. Karnataka’s regular captain Vinay Kumar missed out the game due to an elbow injury. It was Karun Nair who led the side in the last two games of the tournament. Now as the experienced skipper Kumar is still recovering from the injury, the 26-year-old Nair is set to lead the side in the quarterfinals.

Raghuram Bhat, selection committee chairman also confirmed unavailability of experienced campaigner Abhimanyu Mithun. With both fast bowlers not playing the match, left-arm medium pacer Sreenath Aravind’s return will give the side some boost in the bowling department. Earlier, Arvind along with all-rounder Stuart Binny was rested from the league games.

Happy that bench strength is delivering for us: selection committee chairman

Speaking about the blows in the bowling department, Bhat said that he was happy the way the bowlers have done well without their 3 main bowlers in the earlier games. “We have always believed in our bench strength and are happy they have delivered under pressure, especially in the last match when all the three senior pacers did not play,” said the chairman Bhat as quoted by Cricbuzz.

Injured wicketkeeper CM Gautam too will make his way into the side after being declared fit. He got injured during the league game. Karnataka’s opener Mayank Agarwal is in tremendous form and is currently the leading run scorer in the tournament. He topped the table during the Ranji Trophy as well as he ended up scoring 1160 runs in the season at 105.45. He hit 5 tons during the tournament which saw Vidarbha clinch their maiden title after beating Delhi.

Karnataka will take on Hyderabad in the first knockout game of the tournament in Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla on 21st February. Mumbai, Maharashtra, Baroda, Saurashtra, Andhra and Delhi are the other teams who are in the knockout round and will fight out to make their way in the semifinals of the tournament.