Karnataka’s A. Mithun, Prasidh Krishna ruled out of Ranji Trophy opener

Uncapped right-arm speedster K. S. Devaiah makes it to the 15-man squad for the contest against Tamil Nadu.

Karun Nair will lead the Karnataka side in the absence of Manish Pandey.

Karnataka will miss the services of frontline pacemen A. Mithun and Prasidh Krishna, and middle-order mainstay K. V. Siddharth, for the opening Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu from December 9 to 12 in Dindigul.

Mithun, who took 26 wickets in the last edition, is out with a back spasm that had also kept him out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final last week, while Prasidh has a troublesome ankle. Siddharth, who was Karnataka’s top-scorer in the 2018-19 Ranji season with 728 runs, is yet to recover from the shoulder injury he sustained during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

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Also missing are K. L. Rahul and Manish Pandey, both of whom will be away with the Indian national team for the limited-overs series against West Indies. In Pandey’s absence Karun Nair will lead the side.

‘Exciting young fast bowler’

Uncapped right-arm speedster K. S. Devaiah has made it to the 15-man squad and selection committee chairman Raghuram Bhat expressed confidence that he would come good. “He is an exciting young fast bowler and he was very impressive during the Thimmappaiah tournament,” he stated.

David Mathias, who last played a Ranji game three years ago, was also retained from the list of probables announced a day earlier.

• Karun Nair (c), Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, D. Nischal, Pavan Deshpande, B. R. Sharath, Sharath Srinivas, Ronit More, David Mathias, V. Koushik, Shreyas Gopal, K. Gowtham, J. Suchith, R. Samarth, and K. S. Devaiah.