Karnataka takes on a depleted Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy

Depth in batting and bowling will give Karnataka an edge over a depleted Tamil Nadu as the two teams lock horns in their Group-B match of the four-day Ranji Trophy tournament here tomorrow.

Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu gained one point each in their opening match last week against Baroda and Odisha respectively.

While Tamil Nadu was unlucky as their match was washed out, Karnataka, on the other hand, collapsed suddenly after a good start to give a vital first innings lead to Baroda in their drawn match.

Going by the strengths of the team, Tamil Nadu will be without the services of its two India players in Murali Vijay and Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as they have been called for national duty against the visiting England team.

Vijay has been in good nick and had on occasions won the match for Tamil Nadu in the past like Ashwin and their absence will only bolster the chances of Karnataka.

Batting has been the high point of Karnataka for a couple of seasons. Their depth in batting line-up, which includes Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Ganesh Satish, KB Pawan and Amit Varma has been the focal point of Karnataka's performance.

In the bowling department, Karnataka has a three-pronged attack comprising captain R Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Stuart Binny.

Young Rohit More is a talented bowler and he could shift the tide in his team's favour with his variety. Slow left-arm spinner KP Appanna could also play a lead role in affecting the host's plans.Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, will depend on Aushik Srinivas and M Ashwin in absence of Vijay and Ashwin.

They boast of three medium pacers in Lakshmipathy Balaji, M Mohammed, Malolan Rangarajan or J Kaushik besides Yo Mahesh.

The hosts also boosts of some solid hitters such as openers Arun Karthik, Abhinav Mukund and middle-order batsman Subramaniam Badrinath, wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik, besides the new sensational youngster Baba Aparajith.

Pitch is likely to play true and the team members are hoping for full four days play as the weathermen have predicted monsoon rains.

Teams:

Tamil Nadu: L Balaji (C), Arun Karthik, Abhinav Mukund, S Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik, R Prasanna, K Vasudeva Das, B Aparajith, Aushik Srinivas, V Yo Mahesh, J Kaushik, M Mohammed, M Ashwin, Malolan Rangarajan.

Karnataka: R Vinay Kumar (C), Robin Upthappa, K B Pawan, Ganesh Satish, Manish Pandey, Amit Verma, Stuart Binny, C M Gautam, A Mithin, Ronit More, K P Appanna, K L Rahul, Kunal Kapoor, Sunil Raju, and S K Moinuddin.