Depleted Karnataka take on Bangladesh

Mysuru: After going down 1-2 in the three-match unofficial one-dayers in Bengaluru on Sunday, Mominul Haque-led Bangladesh will take on domestic powerhouse Karnataka, missing many of their stars, in a three-day tour game at the SDNR ground here on Tuesday.

With stars Sreenath Arvind, KL Rahul, Stuart Binny, Manish Pandey and Karun Nair in India’s preparatory camp ahead of the marathon South Africa series, treble-title winning R. Vinay Kumar will lead a below-strength Karnataka side against the experienced Bangladesh ‘A’.

The Ranji champs begin their title defence against Assam in the season opener in Guwahati a week after this game on October 1. Fresh from a match-winning knock for Bijapur Bulls in the KPL-4 final against Hubli Tigers on Sunday, the in-form Robin Uthappa will look to continue his rampant run with the bat. Fellow opener Mayank Agarwal will be keen to get into the groove following an impressive run for the India ‘A’ over the past two months while wicketkeeper-batsman C.M. Gautam and R. Samarth hope to fire in the middle-order for the hosts. Along with Vinay, H.S. Sharath, David Mathias and Prasidh Krishna make up a new-look pace section while Shreyas Gopal, Suchith J, Udit Patel and Mitrakanth Yadav form the spin department

Meanwhile, in the absence of the spearhead Taskin Ahmed, who returned home owing to an injury, Rubel Hossain will lead the attack for the visitors. Their batsmen, led by Nasir Hossain have been in decent form and will look to get some good practice against K’taka ahead of their three-day unofficial game against India ‘A’ in Bengaluru next week.