Ranji Trophy 2017/18: Karnataka Name Unchanged Squad for Semi-Final Tie; KL Rahul, Manish Pandey to Miss Out

Karnataka has named an unchanged squad for the semi-final game of the Ranji Trophy 2017/18.

The R Vinay Kumar-led side will face a strong Vidarbha, who has qualified for the semi-final of Ranji Trophy for the first time.

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An unchanged squad also means the team will miss out on the services of KL Rahul and Manish Pandey, as they are a part of the T20I side for the series against Sri Lanka.

There could have been a case when KL Rahul could have played the quarter-final tie for the team, as he is not the part of the ODI series but the team management did not release him. It is to be noted; he was also not the part of playing XI in the Delhi Test against Sri Lanka as well.

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Despite the unavailability of their star players, Karnataka defeated Mumbai by a margin of an innings and 20 runs in the quarterfinal game played in Nagpur.

Skipper R Vinay Kumar led the team from the front, and his hat-trick in the first innings saw Mumbai being bowled out on a score of 173 in the first innings. Later, Karnataka posted a huge total of 570 on the board. When asked to bat again, Mumbai could just score 377 and lost the game.

Vidarbha, on the other hand, defeated Kerala in the quarterfinal played in Surat. Kerala was asked to chase down 578 runs on the final day, and they tried to chase the impossible task, thus being dismissed out on 165.

The semi-final game will be played in Pune. On the other hand, Delhi will face Bengal in the second semi-final in Kolkata. Both the semi-finals will start on December 17. The final of the 83rd edition of Ranji Trophy will be played from December 29 to January 2.

Karnataka squad: R Vinay Kumar (captain), Karun Nair (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, R Samarth, Dega Nischal, Stuart Binny, CM Gautam, Shreyas Gopal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreenath Aravind, Pavan Deshpande, Jagadeesha Suchith, Mir Kaunain Abbas, Sharath Srinivas, Ronit More

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