On one hand, the Indian cricket team is busy participating in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the Australia tour. At the same time, domestic cricket is also very popular in India. Following the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024, the Vijay Hazare Trophy will be held from December 21 and the Kerala squad has been announced. India’s powerful opening batsman Sanju Samson failed to get a place in the squad in which Vijay Hazare was selected. The move follows an internal decision to include only those players who had attended a preparation camp before the tournament.
Samson led Kerala in the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMT), but they won four out of six games and missed out on qualifying for the knockout rounds. Samson was originally included in the 30-man shortlist, but was ultimately excluded. Samson scored two T20 hundreds in South Africa tour but Kerala lost 5 in 6 games under Syed Mushtaq Ali Only 135 runs were scored in the match, including half a century.
Bad condition becomes the reason
According to ESPNcricinfo, Samson had written to the association to explain why he was unable to participate in the training camp, but KCA decided to stick to the original decision. Senior batsman Sachin Baby is also out due to injury during SMAT, so batsman Salman Nizar has been named captain for the 50-over games. On the other hand, Manish Pandey’s name has not been included in the Karnataka team. Due to poor form, he failed to get a place in the team. Under such circumstances, it seems difficult for him to come back soon.
Kerala team: Salman Nizar (captain), Rohan Kunnumal, Shaun Roger, Mohammad Azharuddin (wicketkeeper), Anand Krishnan, Krishna Prasad, Jalaj Saxena, Aditya Sarwate, Sijoman Joseph, Basil Thampi, Basil NP, Nidhish MD, Eden Apple Tom, Sharafuddin, Akhil Scaria , Vishweshwar Suresh, Vaishakh Chandran, Ajnaas M (Goalkeeper).
Karnataka Team: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Shreyas Gopal (vice-captain), S Nikin Jos, KV Aneesh, R Smaran, KL Srijit, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Raj, Vishak Vijaykumar, Vasuki Kaushik, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan Bedare, Abhilash Shetty, Manoj Bhandage, Praveen Dubey, Ravneth Sisodia.
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