Chance for Karnataka to consolidate

Karnataka face Madhya Pradesh in an Elite Group 'B' Ranji Trophy contest at the Navule stadium in Shivamogga from Tuesday.

The hosts are fourth on the cross pool table with 24 points from six games, including three wins. Madhya Pradesh haven’t won a game in six matches and are 17th with eight points on the same 18-team pool.

Contextually speaking, MP only have relegation concerns to dock at, but the resting of Naman Ojha and Ishwar Pandey for this contest, and possibly the next, shows that they aren’t particularly interested in saving face. Instead, at least according to stand-in skipper Shubham Sharma, they are looking to give their young talent a run in this “transition phase”.

And with Avesh Khan warming the benches for India ‘A’ in New Zealand, MP look far less a challenge than already deemed. As it is, they needed more than a few cogs to spin in tandem to come out with positives from this contest, but with three of their premier players out, the task looks unsurmountable.

Sure, Rameez Khan - the left-handed opener - has done well, and Gaurav Yadav - the paceman - has done enough to hold the second spot on the wicket-takers’ table for MP with 16 scalps behind Avesh’s 28, but to topple Karnataka on home turf would require more. Much more.

Basically, Karnataka could not have asked for a better opposition, especially not when their progress to the knockouts is still in suspense. Owning to poor performances against a couple of sides (Saurashtra and Himachal Pradesh) where they conceded the innings lead, Karnataka are still not assured of a spot in the playoffs.

They would need a win and a first innings lead from their last two matches to ensure a place in the quarters without the aid of a calculator. Yes, there is a lot at stake for the eight-time champions and the team which has won two limited-over titles over the course of the last four months.

But coming into the four-day season, Karnataka knew they’d be without KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and Mayank Agarwal for large chunks, meaning they would have to rely on personnel with lesser experience.

Granted, Karun Nair has marshalled his troops well, albeit with a far too casual touch, against some of the more established sides, but as a unit they have looked acquiescent against sides with lesser legacy. Certainly, they’ll want to guard against complacency of such nature on this green strip because this contest, as easy as it is likely to be for Yere Goud’s wards, is of utmost importance in maintaining momentum ahead of their final league tie. For which, they’ll need to address some of the issues which have plagued them thus far.

Aside chinks involving temperament, Karnataka are also currently consumed by the not-so-small issue of batsmen unable to kick-on after looking compact at the start. Then there is the Shreyas Gopal conundrum. The experienced bowler has princely five wickets at the cost of 433 runs (193 runs with the bat from six games), and his continued presence in the side raises a big question .

Given that this wicket is expected to crack early due to the heat, though the curator has promised to start the game with 6 mm grass, Pravin Dubey should get a go. Extra all-rounder be damned, they already have reverted to the services of K Gowtham.

That said, besides minor combination refurbishing, Karnataka have this in the bank.

Teams (from): Karnataka: Karun Nair (capt), BR Sharath, Sharath Srinivas (wk), R Samarth, Rohan Kadam, Devdutt Padikkal, Pavan Deshpande, Shreyas Gopal, A Mithun, Ronit More, V Koushik, Prateek Jain, KV Siddharth, Pravin Dubey, K Gowtham.

Madhya Pradesh: Shubham Sharma (capt), Ajay Rohera (wk), Himanshu Mantri (wk), Yash Dubey, Rameez Khan, Gautam Raghuwanshi, Anand Singh Bais, Rajat Patidar, Aditya Shrivastava, Kumar Karthikeya Singh, Mihir Hirwani, Gaurav Yadav, Ravi Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Kuldeep Sen.