Karnataka eye a grand treble

Individuals like Roger Federer, Usain Bolt and Sachin Tendulkar have managed it. Teams too to do that occassionaly. The West Indian cricket team of the 80s, their Australian counterparts of the 90s, and the Brazil football team rode on the mystique around them. Closer to home we have Mumbai, the undisputed kings of Indian domestic cricket till a recent while back. At one point, beating them was like climbing the Everest with a single oxygen cylinder.

Now, we have to add another team to that list -- Karnataka. They are on the verge of a magnificent treble. They had won the Ranji Trophy, the Irani Cup and the Vijay Hazare Trophy last season. They have already retained two of them, Ranji and Hazare. If they manage to tame Rest Of India, which they should do with minimum fuss, in the Irani Cup, starting here from Tuesday, then it will be an unprecedented act.

Six national titles in two seasons. That’s stuff of dreams. It’s hard to find a parallel -- across teams in any sport. That bull run over the last two seasons has created a charisma around this Karnataka outfit. Now, no longer they are a good team. They are a champion team. They knew it. More importantly, other teams know it. Manoj Tiwari, captain of Rest Of India, summed up the hopelessness a team may feel these days while taking on Karnataka. “They have been playing really well and the important thing in their side is the balance. They have a lot of variations and have bowlers who are picking up a lot of wickets. They have a left-arm pacer, one genuine quick, one swing bowler and a spinner as well. As a captain you always want a lot of variations in your team, and they have that. Their batsmen are also scoring a lot of runs,” said Tiwari.

The Bengal batsman, a heavy scorer in domestic circuit himself, was clearly looking for a chink -- a small crevice through which his team can barge in and subdue Karnataka. Sorry Manoj, but there is none as of now. At times, the Karnataka top-order had caved in this season. But their batting runs deep until the 11th man, as you would expect from a champion side. KL Rahul and CM Gautam will not be available for this match due to injuries. But Karnataka have more than handy players ready to step in to their slots in R Samarth and Shishir Bhavane. Or this could be a golden chance for likely debutant Abhishek Reddy.

If you breakdown this Karnataka team into small units, their bowling carries that mystique. The four pacers -- skipper R Vinay Kumar, A Mithun, S Arvind and HS Sharath -- have together accounted for 133 wickets and leggie Shreyas Gopal has added another 28 sticks to that already remarkable number. When five bowlers take 161 wickets among them, then the opposition has little option other than praying for their survival. Think of it, 161 wickets, it’s not a bluff. It is unfair to attribute that number to conditions, nature of wickets etc. It requires pure skill to bowl on any kind of surface to garner that many wickets in a single season. Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai will vouch for this Karnataka bowling unit’s versatality and ability to strike even on barren surfaces.

This Rest Of India side has some strong players in it. They have a set of capable bowlers in Varun Aaron, Shardul Thakur and Pragyan Ojha. Their batting too have a solid look, having the services of Tiwari, Rishi Dhawan, Naman Ojha and Unmukt Chand. But they just don’t have Karnataka’s aura.