TN test for Karnataka in opener

In a heart-warming social media post last week, Dinesh Karthik emphasised on perspectives. Through words that came straight from the heart, the Tamil Nadu limited-over skipper was trying to lift the mood of a team that came close to winning not one but two titles this season.

“Perspective matters. Positive outweighs the negative. Lots of talent and most importantly, tremendous character and resilience shown by Tamil Nadu,” he posted along with a photograph of his team-mates together. Years later, looking back, the players are sure to feel the pinch of the missing trophies in the photograph. The team that stopped them from gaining the champions’ tag twice this year was the team that deserved them the most - Karnataka.

When on a roll, Karnataka are a different beast. Teams find it impossible to crack the code of their dominance. By clinching the Vijay Hazare and the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophies, Karnataka are once again the talk of domestic cricket. Come Monday, their focus will shift to the Ranji Trophy, a tournament they last won in 2014-15.

As they look for a positive start to the long season, Karun Nair and company run into Tamil Nadu again. The arch-rivals will square off for the fourth time this season - this time in a Group B encounter here at the NPR College ground.

On the eve of the tie, the contrasting moods of the two teams weren’t hard to miss at the practice session. Karnataka wore a happy look of a side brimming with confidence. Kick-starting their training session with a 15-minute game of football, the players were all smiles, exchanging unending banters. Their body language didn’t convey any pressure of playing the first game against a strong side.

On the other end, the Tamil Nadu camp was filled with intense faces. Even as captain Vijay Shankar attempted to play down the impact of the missed opportunities, the disappointment from two heartbreaks lingered on.

“Look even if we had won one title it wouldn’t have been the end of the world,” Shankar began, in his interaction with the reporters.

“Definitely missing out on two finals was very hard to digest. But if you look at the last couple of seasons, we didn’t even qualify for the knockouts of these tournaments. So playing well and reaching two in finals is a good sign for us,” he said.

The 2019-20 season has added a fresh chapter to the famous rivalry. “Our matches are filled with high intensity. When we step on to the field, it’s much more than the battle of bat and ball. It is good to play such a top side right in our first game because if we do well against them our confidence level is sure to go up,” he said.

Despite ruling the white-ball cricket this time, Karnataka will not have it easy in the longer format. On the batting front, with four openers in the squad, they will have to find the right combination. While Devdutt Padikkal and Mayank Agarwal will be the openers, it will be a toss up between D Nischal and R Samarth for the third top-order batsman.

Their inexperienced pace attack will be tested against a strong TN batting. K Gowtham, who entered wedlock two days ago, was expected to join the side late on Sunday.

Squads (from): Tamil Nadu: Vijay Shankar (captain), Baba Aparajith (vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik, N Jagadeesan, R Ashwin, Sai Kishore, T Natarajan, K Vignesh, S Abhishek Tanwar, Murugan Ashwin, M Siddharth, Shahrukh Khan, K Mukunth.

Karnataka: Karun Nair (captain), Shreyas Gopal (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, D Nischal, R Samarth, K Gowtham, J Suchith, V Koushik, David Mathias, KS Devaiah, Ronit More, BR Sharath (wicketkeeper), Sharath Srinivas (wicketkeeper), Pavan Deshpande.