Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Mayank Agarwal to lead Karnataka in first two matches

Experienced opener Mayank Agarwal was on Wednesday named as Karnataka captain for the first two matches of the upcoming Ranji Trophy season.

The promising young batsman Nikin Jose has been appointed as Agarwal's deputy.

However, KL Rahul has not been named in the 16-man squad considering India's upcoming assignments at home against Afghanistan (three T20Is) and England (five Tests) across January and February.

Agarwal had a big 2022-23 domestic season emerging as the top run-getter in the circuit with 990 runs from nine matches at average of 82.50 that contained three hundreds and six fifties.

Karnataka will open their Ranji campaign against Punjab at Hubli from January 5-8 and in their second match, the former champions will face Gujarat in Ahmedabad from January 12-15.

Former batsman PV Shashikanth has been retained as the coach of the side.

Karnataka squad: Mayank Agarwal (c), Ravikumar Samarth, Devdutt Padikkal, Nikin Jose (vc), Manish Pandey, Shubhang Hegde, Sharath Srinivas (wk), Vysakh Vijayakumar, Vasuki Koushik, Vidwath Kaverappa, K Shashikumar, Sujay Sateri (wk), D Nischal, M Venkatesh, Kishan S Bedare, AC Rohit Kumar.