Indian cricket star KL Rahul has been named in Karnataka's squad for their final league match of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season which will be played against Haryana from January 30. The match will be held at the 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 match for Punjab and smashed a much-needed century. However, Karnataka went on to win the match which was a do or die match for them.
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KL Rahul has been named in Karnataka's squad against Haryana
🚨 The return of KL RAHUL class 🚨
– KL Rahul is in Karnataka's squad for the Ranji Trophy match against Haryana. ⭐ pic.twitter.com/b0ib3cn36K
– Tanuj Singh (@ImTanujSingh) January 27, 2025
KL Rahul will return to the Ranji Trophy after a decade. His last match was in 2015 when he played against Uttar Pradesh and scored a brilliant 337 in the first innings while opening the batting.
While Rahul was included in Karnataka's squad for this match, it was surprising that he was not given the captaincy. Experienced batsman Mayank Agarwal will lead Karnataka while Shreyas Gopal is the vice-captain of the team.
The team looks strong and has 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 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test played in Perth while Prasidh Krishna featured in the last Test match played in Sydney.
While it is almost certain that KL Rahul will be in the playing XI, where he will bat is not yet clear. He is likely to open the batting for Karnataka alongside skipper 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 batsman but moved up the order in Rohit Sharma's absence in the first Test. Rohit missed the Perth Test to be with his wife for the birth of their second child.
However, Rohit returned for the second match but decided not to bowl India's opening set as Rahul had an exceptional first game with the bat, helping India to 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 a fifty.
India international players in Ranji Trophy
India's poor performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy prompted selectors to oblige centrally contracted players to make themselves available for domestic cricket.
no. Indian international players such as Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Shubman Gill featured for their teams in the Ranji Trophy round held on 23 January.
While Rahul will play for Karnataka, Virat Kohli will also feature for Delhi in the match against Railways starting January 30. It is the last league match this season in which a knockout will be played after this match.
