JOIN USThe changes were necessitated after six players, including skipper S Badrinath, were picked to represent the Board President’s XI which will take on the visiting South Africans in a two-day practice match in Nagpur beginning the same day.
Dinesh Kaarthick, left out of the national squad for the first Test against the Proteas, returns as the skipper of the side, while the Karnataka duo of Ganesh Satish and S Arvind too break in to the zonal side.
The right-handed Satish made upwards of 600 runs in his first full season in the Ranji Trophy, while left-arm medium-pacer Arvind more than adequately backed up the new-ball duo of R Vinay Kumar and A Mithun.
Apart from Badrinath, Vinay and Mithun, the others from South Zone who have been drafted into the Board XI are opening batsman Abhinav Mukund, middle-order tyro Manish Pandey from Karnataka and off-spinner all-rounder R Ashwin, who played a key role with bat and ball in South’s semifinal win over Central.
The squad: Dinesh Kaarthick (capt), S Anirudha, Robin Uthappa, KB Arun Karthik, Ganesh Satish, CM Gautam, P Rohan Prem, C Ganapathy, T Atchuti Rao, S Arvind, Alfred Absolem, Shadab Jakati, R Aushik Srinivas, KB Pawan, Syed Ahmed Quadri. Coach: K Sanath Kumar. Manager: R Sudhakar Rao.