KL Rahul included but denied leadership as Karnataka Ranji Trophy squad for Haryana clash announced

India's star cricketer KL Rahul has been picked in Karnataka's squad for their last league game of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season which will be played against Haryana from January 30. The match will be played at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Rahul was earlier expected to play Karnataka's previous match against Punjab due to an elbow injury. Shubman Gill also featured in that game for Punjab and smashed a much-needed century. However, Karnataka went on to win the match which was a do-or-die game for them.

Also read: Virat Kohli to join Team Delhi for Ranji Trophy 2024-25 on...

KL Rahul picked in Karnataka's squad against Haryana

🚨 CLASS KL RAHUL IS BACK 🚨

- KL Rahul in the Karnataka Squad for the Ranji Trophy match against Haryana. ⭐ pic.twitter.com/b0ib3cn36K

— Tanuj Singh (@ImTanujSingh) January 27, 2025

KL Rahul will make his comeback in the Ranji Trophy after a decade. His last match was way back in 2015 when he played against Uttar Pradesh and struck a magnificent 337 in the first innings while opening the batting.

While Rahul has been included in Karnataka's squad for this game, it was a surprise that he wasn't given the captaincy. Experienced batter Mayank Agarwal will lead Karnataka while Shreyas Gopal is the team's vice-captain.

The squad looks solid with a good amount of experience. Among the India internationals, Devdutt Padikkal and Prasidh Krishna are also in Karnataka's squad for this match.

Devdutt Padikkal played in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy played at Perth while Prasidh Krishna featured in the last Test match played at Sydney.

While it is almost confirmed that KL Rahul will be in the Playing XI, his batting spot is not yet clear. He is likely to open the batting for Karnataka alongside his captain Mayank Agarwal.

KL Rahul in BGT 2024-25

KL Rahul opened the batting for India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was selected as a middle order batter but moved up the order in the absence of Rohit Sharma in the first Test. Rohit missed the Perth Test to be with his wife for the birth of his second child.

However, Rohit came back for the second match but decided not to tinker with India's opening combination as Rahul had an exceptional first game with the bat, helping India with a historic win.

The first three Tests of the series went well for Rahul but he failed to finish the series well which affected his overall average. Overall, he scored 276 runs in five Tests at an average of 30.66 with two fifties.

India's international players in Ranji Trophy

India's poor performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy prompted the selectors to make it compulsory for the centrally contracted players to make themselves available for domestic cricket.

A no. of Indian internationals like Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, and Shubman Gill took part for their respective teams in the Ranji Trophy round that was played from January 23.

While Rahul will play for Karnataka, Virat Kohli will also feature for Delhi in the game against Railways beginning from January 30. It is the last league game of the season with the knockouts to be played after this game.