Vinay to lead State squad

Last year’s runners-up Karnataka will face Punjab in their first match from November 10 while they will take on Haryana at Rohtak from November 17. Selectors decided to hand over captaincy to Vinay as former India skipper Rahul Dravid, the original choice to lead the side, will not be available for the first two games due to his national commitments.
“To lead a team that in the past has been led by great players like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Joshi is indeed a great honour and privilege for me. But if I think too much about it then it will start affecting my game. So I want to keep it simple, want to enjoy my game and play the way I usually do,” Vinay said.

 Vinay, second highest wicket-taker in the 2009-2010 season, will also spearhead the Karnataka attack along with his younger colleagues Abhimanyu Mithun, highest wicket-taker in the last season and left-arm pacer S Aravind. The responsibility to lead the spin department will be on veteran left-armer Sunil Joshi, who completed 400 wickets in Ranji Trophy last year.

“The team did extremely well last season and we want to continue the good work. Mithun, Arvind and I bowled well in tandem and among the batsmen Manish Pandey and Ganesh Satish had a good stint. Robin Uthappa also had a few good knocks. Yes, there will be the pressure of expectations because of the way we played last season but I have conveyed to the team that we need to enjoy our game and not put any undue pressure on ourselves,” Vinay said.

Mysore all-rounder Aditya B Sagar and talented right-hander KL Rahul will be the two new faces in the 15-member squad, to be coached by K Sanath Kumar. Asgar Pasha and BN Bharath will accompany the team as bowlers.

“KL Rahul is a talented batsman and he has come up very well through the age-group tournaments. The team is young and compact and there is good spirit among the players and we are all keen to start our Ranji season well,” Vinay added.

The squad: R Vinay Kumar (captain), Robin Uthappa, KB Pawan, Amit Verma, Manish Pandey, CM Gautam, Ganesh Satish, Sunil Joshi, A Mithun, S Aravind, KL Rahul, Stuart Binny, Udit Patel, Sunil Raju, Aditya B Sagar; Coach: K Sanath Kumar.