Karnataka Drop KKR Star Manish Pandey From Vijay Hazare Trophy Squad, Name Unsold IPL Player Captain

Veteran opener Mayank Agarwal on Thursday was named as Karnataka’s captain for the Vijay Hazare Trophy to be held in Ahmedabad from December 21 to January 5, 2025. It will be a chance for Agarwal to make amends as his side failed to enter the knockouts of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The most notable aspect of the selection was the elevation of Shreyas Gopal as the vice-captain. The leg-spin all-rounder had returned to Karnataka at the beginning of this season after spending the previous season with Kerala.

Shreyas was rewarded for being the leading wicket-taker for Karnataka in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He took 14 wickets from seven matches at an excellent economy of 6.1.

Seasoned batter and former captain Manish Pandey was overlooked in what could be the end of the road for him with the state team.

Karnataka will open their campaign against Mumbai at the Narendra Modi Stadium in on December 21.

Apart from Karnataka and Mumbai, the Group C will feature Puducherry, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh, Saurashtra, Hyderabad and Nagaland.

Karnataka are four-time champions of the premier domestic 50-over competition and their last title win came in the 2019-20 season.

The squad: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Shreyas Gopal (vice-captain), S Nikin Jose, KV Aneesh, R Smaran, KL Shrijith, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Raj, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Vasuki Koushik, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan Bedare, Abhilash Shetty, Manoj Bhandage, Pravin Dubey, Luvnith Sisodia.