Young stars leave today

The team suffered twin blows even before departure with Karnataka left-arm seamer S Arvind and Punjab leg-spinner Rahul Sharma being ruled out through injuries. They have been replaced by Jaidev Unadkat, who made his Test debut in Centurion last December, and Baroda left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt, who was the highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy season gone by.

"Arvind has a side strain and Rahul has an injury in his disc,” coach Bharat Arun said. “But I am confident about the two bowlers who have come in. As a coach, you have to be prepared for change in personnel and I have also told the squad that it is the team that wins the championship and not individual players.

“If they back their intent with effort, this bunch of players will do well," the former Indian paceman added.

"The camp went well, we achieved everything we wanted out of it,” he went on. “The boys understand that this tour could be their next big step towards the Indian team."

Unlike in previous editions, this year’s competition is a three-day affair in Townsville also involving Australian Institute of Sport, South Africa and New Zealand.

Earlier, the tournament was a limited-overs affair with matches of the Twenty20 and 50-over versions.

“We have to give it out best,” added Arun, whose wards will play a Twenty20 competition prior to the Emerging Players Tournament. Karnataka are well represented by Manish Pandey, CM Gautam and R Vinay Kumar.

Team: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt), Anirudha Srikkanth, Manish Pandey, Saurabh Tiwary, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Menaria, CM Gautam, Ambati Rayudu, Bhargav Bhatt, Iqbal Abdulla, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, R Vinay Kumar, Jaidev Unadkat. Coach: Bharat Arun.