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Irani Cup: Spotlight on Robin Uthappa, Kedar Jadhav

Ahead of IPL, the Karnataka batsman will look to continue good form

Bengaluru: The likes of Robin Uthappa and Kedar Jadhav will be eyeing to resurrect their international careers, before embarking on high-octane Indian Premier League (IPL) contest, when Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka and Rest of India (RoI) lock horns in the Irani Cup here on Tuesday.

Karnataka's Uthappa, who closely missed the World Cup bus in spite of scoring heavily this domestic season, would like to continue with his form and make a statement to the selectors. He scored 912 runs in 19 innings at an average of 50.66 per innings, topping the Ranji batting charts.

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Not far behind would be RoI's Jadhav, who will also be looking to impress the national selectors. In fact, more than Uthappa, the Maharashtra batsman would be eager to perform as he did not have a satisfactory domestic season this year.

Last season Jadhav was the highest scorer with 1,223 runs that helped Maharashtra reach to the final. But this year he cracked just one ton during his team's semifinal journey.

A solid knock against the Karnataka pace trio of Abhimanyu Mithun, R Vinay Kumar and Sreenath Aravind will boost Jadhav's confidence and keep him in the selection fray.

Himachal Pradesh's Paras Dogra will also try to make his profile stronger by continuing to bat well as he did by making five double hundreds since 2011-12, including two this season.

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Dogra's 819 runs was key in Himachal nearly storming into the quarterfinal stage, but failed by a whisker on the last day of the league stage.

Meanwhile, RoI captain Manoj Tiwary, who made just two half-centuries for Bengal, would like to regain form by taking a cue from his performance in the Deodhar Trophy, where he topped the batting charts and led East Zone to the title after 11 seasons.

"I am working hard on my batting and I am sure big innings from my blade is round the corner," Tiwary said.

Unmukt Chand, Jiwanjot Singh and Naman Ojha, are others who form the core batting lineup of the visitors.

( Source : PTI )
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