Samson, fresh from two T20I centuries on the tour of South Africa, played in five of Kerala’s six matches at SMAT, scoring 135 runs, including a half-century.
kerala team: Salman Nizar (captain), Rohan Kunnummal, Shoun Roger, Mohammed Azharuddeen (wk), Anand Krishnan, Krishna Prasad, Jalaj Saxena, Aditya Sarwate, Sijomon Joseph, Basil Thampi, Basil NP, Nidheesh MD, Eden Apple Tom, Sharafuddeen, Akhil Scaria, Vishweshwar Suresh, Vaishak Chandran, Ajnas M (week)
Manish Pandey’s Karnataka ‘moves on’
The KSCA believes that Pandey’s exit at this time is purely for form and the possibility of a return seems “difficult”. Pandey managed only 117 runs in five innings as Karnataka failed to achieve the SMAT knocks; They finished fourth in the eight-team group, losing to Baroda and Saurashtra.
The association also went to the extent of saying that Pandey, who was vice-captain to Mayank Agarwal during the first half of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25, will not be considered for the final of the competition which will resume in January. Pandey scored a solo half-century in six innings and Karnataka needed a miracle to qualify for the knockouts.
“We, as an association, have realized that we need to leave behind the yesteryear players and bring in new blood,” Abhiram said. “We cannot live in past glory.”
If Pandey indeed played his last match, it will mark the end of a glorious career in which he was part of two Ranji Trophy-winning teams. [2013-14 and 2014-15]in addition to winning several white ball championships. Interestingly, Karnataka won their most recent trophy under his leadership – the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy consecutively in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Pandey’s expulsion from Karnataka comes on the heels of a series of high-profile exits. All-rounder K Gowtham has not been considered in any format since the end of the 2022-23 season despite his convincing performances in club cricket and the state Maharaja T20 Trophy.
R Samarth, the opener, moved to Uttarakhand to play all formats, something he couldn’t do in Karnataka as the selectors considered him a red-ball specialist. Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal left for Kerala for a season but has since returned to the Karnataka fold.
It now appears that senior players, including captain Agarwal, will come under close scrutiny by the selection committee in case they continue to fail. “When we won the double treble, it was a young team from Karnataka,” Abhiram said. “We are once again counting on youth to get us there.”
karnataka team: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Shreyas Gopal (vice-captain), S Nikin Jose, KV Aneesh, R Smaran, KL Shrijith, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Raj, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Vasuki Koushik, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan Bedare, Abhilash Shetty, Manoj Bhandage, Pravin Dubey, Luvnith Sisodia
Shashank Kishore is Senior Deputy Editor at ESPNcricinfo
