<p>Karnataka, the reigning kings of Indian domestic cricket, will be looking to test their bench strength ahead of their title defences when they lock horns with a strong Bangladesh ‘A’ in a three-day game starting here from Tuesday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Over the last two years, Karnataka, backed by a supremely talented generation of cricketers, have swept almost everything before them, completing an unprecedented double-treble in winning the Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup and Vijay Hazare Trophy for two successive years.<br /><br />And as they resume their Ranji Trophy title defence first from October 1, Karnataka will get a perfect opportunity to fine-tune their engine and check the quality of the supporting parts as they take on a Bangladesh side brimming with plenty of international players.<br /><br />Missing pieces<br /><br />Thanks to their brilliant performances over the past few seasons, Karnataka will be without several players who have been instrumental in the overwhelming success. Opening batsman KL Rahul, middle-order batsmen Karun Nair and Manish Pandey and all-rounder Stuart Binny have been selected for the senior national camp that got underway in Bengaluru on Monday.<br /><br />Nair and pacer Abhimanyu Mithun have been picked for the three-day game involving India ‘A’ and Bangladesh ‘A’ in Bengaluru from September 27, leaving Karnataka with just a handful of the seasoned names for the match here at the SDNR Wadiyar stadium.<br /><br />Having said that, Karnataka still boast of a respectable batting order that would be keen to get some match practice in the longer format against a quality Bangladesh bowling attack that must be smarting from a 1-2 loss in the just-concluded one-dayers against India ‘A’.<br /><br />Robin Uthappa, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal and wicketkeeper CM Gautam — all integral part of the batting order last season — will be determined for a strong hit and a lot will hinge on them with big scorers Rahul and Nair missing out.<br /><br />Bowling trouble<br /><br />If there is one department where Karnataka look relatively weaker it is the bowling. Skipper and lead pacer R Vinay Kumar was ruled out on the eve of the clash after being struck by a bout of viral fever and his partners S Arvind and Mithun too would be missing. This means the strapping HS Sharath will have to carry bulk of the workload. Unheralded David Mathias and Prasidh M Krishna may have to share the new ball and they have to really step it up against a solid Bangladeshi batting. <br /><br />Leggie Shreyas Gopal will don the lead spinner’s hat and he would want to use it as a perfect warm-up before the India ‘A’ game.<br /><br />With three-day games having very little possibility of producing a result, they are normally treated as practice affairs and Bangladesh too would be keen to extract as much as they can from the two back-to-back encounters. Australia come calling next month and with many members of current team expected to take guard against the World No 2 side in Tests, they wouldn’t want to fritter way this opportunity. Also, it presents the fringe players to stake their claim for the Aussie series.<br /><br />DH News Service<br />The squads (from): Karnataka: CM Gautam (Capt, wk), Robin Uthappa, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Gopal, Abhishek Reddy, J Suchith, Udit Patel, HS Sharath, David Mathias, D Nischal, Shishir Bhavane, Prasidh Krishna, Mitrakanth Yadav.<br />Bangladesh ‘A’: Mominul Haque (captain), Nasir Hossain (vice-captain), Anamul Haque Bijoy, Rony Talukdar, Liton Kumar Das (wk), Shabbir Rahaman, Soumya Sarker, Saqlain Sajib, Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Jubair Hossain, Kamrul Islam Rabbi.<br />Hours of play: 9.30 am to 11.30 am; 12.10 pm to 2.10 pm; 2.30 pm to close of play.</p>
<p>Karnataka, the reigning kings of Indian domestic cricket, will be looking to test their bench strength ahead of their title defences when they lock horns with a strong Bangladesh ‘A’ in a three-day game starting here from Tuesday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Over the last two years, Karnataka, backed by a supremely talented generation of cricketers, have swept almost everything before them, completing an unprecedented double-treble in winning the Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup and Vijay Hazare Trophy for two successive years.<br /><br />And as they resume their Ranji Trophy title defence first from October 1, Karnataka will get a perfect opportunity to fine-tune their engine and check the quality of the supporting parts as they take on a Bangladesh side brimming with plenty of international players.<br /><br />Missing pieces<br /><br />Thanks to their brilliant performances over the past few seasons, Karnataka will be without several players who have been instrumental in the overwhelming success. Opening batsman KL Rahul, middle-order batsmen Karun Nair and Manish Pandey and all-rounder Stuart Binny have been selected for the senior national camp that got underway in Bengaluru on Monday.<br /><br />Nair and pacer Abhimanyu Mithun have been picked for the three-day game involving India ‘A’ and Bangladesh ‘A’ in Bengaluru from September 27, leaving Karnataka with just a handful of the seasoned names for the match here at the SDNR Wadiyar stadium.<br /><br />Having said that, Karnataka still boast of a respectable batting order that would be keen to get some match practice in the longer format against a quality Bangladesh bowling attack that must be smarting from a 1-2 loss in the just-concluded one-dayers against India ‘A’.<br /><br />Robin Uthappa, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal and wicketkeeper CM Gautam — all integral part of the batting order last season — will be determined for a strong hit and a lot will hinge on them with big scorers Rahul and Nair missing out.<br /><br />Bowling trouble<br /><br />If there is one department where Karnataka look relatively weaker it is the bowling. Skipper and lead pacer R Vinay Kumar was ruled out on the eve of the clash after being struck by a bout of viral fever and his partners S Arvind and Mithun too would be missing. This means the strapping HS Sharath will have to carry bulk of the workload. Unheralded David Mathias and Prasidh M Krishna may have to share the new ball and they have to really step it up against a solid Bangladeshi batting. <br /><br />Leggie Shreyas Gopal will don the lead spinner’s hat and he would want to use it as a perfect warm-up before the India ‘A’ game.<br /><br />With three-day games having very little possibility of producing a result, they are normally treated as practice affairs and Bangladesh too would be keen to extract as much as they can from the two back-to-back encounters. Australia come calling next month and with many members of current team expected to take guard against the World No 2 side in Tests, they wouldn’t want to fritter way this opportunity. Also, it presents the fringe players to stake their claim for the Aussie series.<br /><br />DH News Service<br />The squads (from): Karnataka: CM Gautam (Capt, wk), Robin Uthappa, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Gopal, Abhishek Reddy, J Suchith, Udit Patel, HS Sharath, David Mathias, D Nischal, Shishir Bhavane, Prasidh Krishna, Mitrakanth Yadav.<br />Bangladesh ‘A’: Mominul Haque (captain), Nasir Hossain (vice-captain), Anamul Haque Bijoy, Rony Talukdar, Liton Kumar Das (wk), Shabbir Rahaman, Soumya Sarker, Saqlain Sajib, Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Jubair Hossain, Kamrul Islam Rabbi.<br />Hours of play: 9.30 am to 11.30 am; 12.10 pm to 2.10 pm; 2.30 pm to close of play.</p>
