Bengaluru: Through the season, it has been a problem of plenty for Karnataka when it comes to choosing the playing XI for the Ranji Trophy. When the visitors head to Mohali for the semifinals against Punjab starting on Friday, it will be no different. But R. Vinay Kumar’s buoyant unit will be hard done by the absence of emerging pace star H.S. Sharath and opening batsman R. Samrath.
Mandya talent Sharath, has been ruled out of the last-four clash against Punjab due to a shoulder injury he sustained while fielding during the quarterfinals clash against Uttar Pradesh last week. Both the youngsters sustained injuÂries on the second day of the match with Samarth fracturing his finger while attempting a catch.
Sharath has been replaÂced in the squad by the experienced Sreenath ArviÂnd, while Mayank Agarwal will return in place of SamaÂrth. Sharath has been the livewire of the KaÂrnataka’s successful pace attack, bagging 28 wickets in seven matches.
Talking about Sharath, coach J. Arun Kumar said, “When the chips are down even on a flat wicket ShaÂrath is someone who will come and give his 100 per cent. He’ll be out for one game and will be ready for the final hopefully. He will travel with the team to Mohali and start practice there. We want him to be with the team. Luckily, we have some good replacements. We have Ronit More and S. Arvind.”
Samarth, on the other hand, Arun said, will be out for three weeks, thus putting an end to his Ranji season.
It will be interesting to see who the team think-tank will go with. While the 21-year-old More has bagÂged 11 wickets in two maÂtches, the 29-year-old ArÂvind has played just three league matches this season, for a return of six sticks.
Agarwal, meanwhile, who made way for Robin UthÂappa in the quarterfinals after playing seven league encounters is in prime form, having scored a century last week in the Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy last week.
Team: Vinay Kumar R, Robin Uthappa, Rahul K.L, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Gautham C.M, Shreyas Gopal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ronit More, Abrar Kazi, Appanna K P, Ganesh Satish, Amit A Verma, S Arvind. Batting coach: J Arun Kumar; Bowling coach: Mansur Ali Khan; Manger : B Siddaramu; Trainer: Vasanth M; Physios: Shravan and Sriranga; Video analyst: Santhosh; Logistic manager :A Ramesh Rao.
