Six Karnataka players in SZ squad

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu cricketers bagged the lion’s share of berths in the South Zone Duleep Trophy squad to be led by middle-order batsman S Badrinath.

Opener Robin Uthappa, middle-order batsmen Manish Pandey and Amit Verma, all-rounder Stuart Binny, paceman A Mithun and left-arm spinner KP Appanna have found place in the side picked here on Thursday. Wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam and opener KB Pawan from State have been kept as stand-by.

Pandey, who missed most of Karnataka’s Ranji campaign that ended with a defeat in the quarterfinal against Haryana in Bangalore, will be keen to return to action with what could be his first competitive match in over a two months.

Hyderabad has three players in left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, opener Akshat Reddy and off-spinner Syed Quadri while Sony K Cheruvathur is the lone player from Kerala.
South Zone take on Central Zone in the first semifinal here from February 4.

The squad: S Badrinath (capt), Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Amit Verma, Dinesh Kaarthick (wk), Stuart Binny, Abhimanyu Mithun, Yo Mahesh, KP Appanna, Pragyan Ojha, Akshat Reddy, J Kaushik, Sony K Cheruvathur, Syed Ahmed Quadri.

Stand by: KB Pawan, CM Gautam, Amit Yadav, Prasanth Parameswaran, K Vasudevadas, B Sumanth, T Atchuta Rao.Coach: Edwin Joseph; Manager: G SajiKumar; Physio: Dileep Singh.