Somewhat new wine in an old bottle

Bengaluru: As many as five young players were thrown into the mix ahead of the upcoming Ranji Trophy season as Karnataka look to shake off their indifferent form of past and rekindle their romance with the crown. 

R Smaran, Luvnith Sisodia, Mohsin Khan, Vidyadhar Patil and Abhilash Shetty are names which are commonplace on the State circuit for they have delivered at the age-group level, but now is the time to see if they have the stomach for the transition. 

But the absence of a couple of players from the squad of 16 inspired curiosity.

Premium paceman Vidwath Kaverappa and Abhinav Manohar didn't find their names on the list for Karnataka's first two games against Madhya Pradesh (Oct 11-14) and Kerala (Oct 18-21) in Indore and Bengaluru.   

"Kaverappa in injured, he has carried a shin injury for a while and it aggravated during the Duleep Trophy," chairman of the senior selection committee J Abhiram told DH. "He is contracted with the BCCI so he is with the NCA now. We hear that it will take him 4-6 weeks to recover."

"As far as Abhinav is concerned, we will consider him during the course of the season. We always thought of him as that Virender Sehwag type of player who could give us the edge in the middle-order so he is not out of the reckoning. 

"For the start, though, we wanted to go with some balance and see how that plays out," he added. 

As for the core, Mayank Agarwal retains his role as the skipper, while Manish Pandey assumes vice-captaincy duty. But it's the reintegration of Shreyas Gopal which will make for interesting viewing as the season unfolds. A disgruntled Shreyas moved to Kerala for a season, but announced his return to Karnataka last month.

"With Shreyas coming in, the side looks a lot more balanced this time. We were disappointed with the way we played last season and we want to ensure that we have all the eggs in our basket to ensure that we don't repeat the same mistakes," said Abhiram. 

Squad: Mayank Agarwal (capt), Nikin Jose, Devdutt Padikkal, Smaran R, Manish Pandey (vice-capt), Shreyas Gopal, Sujay Sateri (wk), Hardik Raj, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Prasidh Krishna, V Koushik, Luvnith Sisodia, Mohsin Khan, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan S Bedare, Abhilash Shetty. Coach: Yere Goud. Bowling coach: Mansur Ali Khan. Fielding coach: Shabarish P Mohan. Manager: A Ramesh Rao. Physiotherapist: Jaba Prabhu A.