Mayank Agarwal has been named as the captain of Karnataka for the first two rounds of the Ranji Trophy 2024/25 season. Mayank, 33, will be assisted by Manish Pandey as he has been named his deputy.
Karnataka have named a strong 16-member squad for the Ranji Trophy and will begin their campaign against Madhya Pradesh at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on October 11.
The eight-time champions Karnataka are a part of Group C (Elite) and will be seen rubbing their shoulder against Madhya Pradesh (MP), Bengal, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Haryana, Bihar, Kerala, and Punjab. Karnataka will square off against Kerala in their second fixture at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur from October 18 onwards.
Mayank recently led India A to the Duleep Trophy title. However, he was unable to impress with the willow in hand. The right-handed batter aggregated just 142 runs in three matches at an underwhelming average of 23.66 with the help of a solitary half-century.
Mayank has fallen out of favour as far as India selection is concerned but he can climb up in the pecking order with an impressive tally of scores in the Ranji Trophy. He last played for India in March 2022 against Sri Lanka in a Test match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The squad announcement has also marked the return of tearaway pacer Prasidh Krishna. Prasidh spent months on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon in February. He was undergoing rehab under the guidance of the BCCI medical team at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
The right-arm pacer had suffered the injury on the first day of Karnataka's Ranji Trophy 2023-24 match against Gujarat in Ahmedabad in January.
Karnataka's Ranji Trophy 2024/25 squad:
Mayank Agarwal (captain), Nikin Jose, Devdutt Padikkal, R Smaran, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Gopal, Sujay Sateri, Hardik Raj, Vyshak Vijay kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Vasuki Koushik, Luvnith Sisodia, Mohsin Khan, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan Bedare, Abhilash Shetty.
