We are a few days away from the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) knockouts. The teams will play the knockout games from 9th January 2025. For this much-anticipated stage, Karnataka released their 16-member squad on Sunday. Notably, two players from India’s squad who were in Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy are included. Devdutt Padikkal and Prasidh Krishna will be playing the knockout matches. Meanwhile, India’s star batter KL Rahul is missing from the list.
KL Rahul in the Border Gavaskar Trophy
In the recent Test series against Australia, KL Rahul turned out to be a decent performer among his teammates. The batter played all five matches in the series. He scored 276 runs with an average of 30.66, striking a high score of 84. In most of the games he has opened the innings, while in some he has also played down the order.
Why KL Rahul in not playing in Vijay Hazare Trophy?
KL Rahul will be missing the Knockout of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. According to a report by Sportstar, KL Rahul has requested for a break. Also a call on his Ranji Trophy availability will be taken later.
Why other players from BGT squad playing but not KL Rahul?
Other players from the same squad, like Devdutt Padikkal and Prasidh Krishna, are playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy but not KL Rahul because these two players have only one Test in the series. Padikkal played the initial Test while Prasidh Krishna filled it for Akash Deep for the final Test. Meanwhile, Rahul has played all the matches, hence he requested for a break.
Karnataka squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy knockout matches
- Mayank Agarawal (Captain)
Devdutt Padikkal
SJ Nikin Jose
Aneesh KV
Smaran R
Shrijith KL (WK)
Abhinav Manohar
Shreyas Gopal (Vice Captain)
Hardik Raj
Prasidh M Krishna
Koushik V
Vidyadhar Patil
Abhilash Shetty
Pravin Dubey
Luvnith Sisodia (WK)
Yashovardhan Parantap
Karnataka in VHT & Padikkat-Prasidh’s performance earlier
Karnataka emerged as the top team in Group C during the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) group stage. Under the leadership of Mayank Agarwal, they secured six victories out of seven matches, ending with 24 points. Their sole loss was a narrow three-wicket defeat to Hyderabad on January 3.
Devdutt Padikkal brags the highest run total for Karnataka in the tournament’s history, scoring 737 runs with an average of 140.47 in the 2020-21 season. Prasidh Krishna showed good consistency by taking 17 wickets in both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 Vijay Hazare Trophy seasons. The inclusion of Padikkal and Krishna is expected to greatly support Karnataka’s prospects in the knockout rounds.
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