BENGALURU: As Karnataka kick off their Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign against Uttar Pradesh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday, Ravikumar Samarth will be in focus. With the experienced opener, who was not part of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, appointed captain, it will be interesting to see how he can get the best out of the team sans big players, including Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and Krishnappa Gowtham.
More importantly, the team will need his services with the bat after a poor show from their batsmen in the domestic T20 tournament last month. Barring Devdutt Padikkal, none of the players showed any sort of consistency though they reached the knockouts. Even senior pro Karun Nair, who led in the tournament then, was miserable. This being a new tournament altogether, the likes of Nair, Samarth, Rohan Kadam, KV Siddharth and others have to bring their A Game.
"Obviously, they (Mayank, Manish, Rahul and Pandey) are a huge boost if they are in a team. But over the past few years, most of them have been a part of the national set-up and unavailable for domestic matches. When they are available to play for Karnataka, we see it as a bonus. But in their absence, we fall back on our bench strength," said Samarth.
With teams in Group C including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Bihar and Railways, Karnataka have to be on top of their game to reach the quarterfinals. One bad day at the office and things could get difficult for the defending champions.
"They (Uttar Pradesh and Kerala) are formidable teams. But that said, in limited-overs, one player can take a match away. So, you cannot underestimate any team. We have to treat each team with the same respect and prepare in the right earnest," said Samarth. It would be a shame if they fail to get past the knockout stages as they have dominated the competition like no other in the last seven seasons, winning the title an impressive four times.
However, their bowling department looks in good shape in both the spin and pace department. Though Gowtham, who is a net bowler with the India team in the England Test series will be missed, they have J Suchith and Shreyas Gopal to handle spin responsibility. Pacers like Abhimanyu Mithun, Prasidh Krishna and Ronit More have the ammunition to trouble the opposition, which makes them an all-round bowling unit.