దేవదత్‌ పడిక్కల్‌కు ప్రమోషన్‌

Karnataka player Devdutt Padikkal got promotion. The sky was the limit in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare ODI tournament (725 runs at an average of 90.62) and the Karnataka Cricket Association appointed him as their Ranji captain. Padikkal will captain Karnataka in the upcoming match against Punjab from 29th of this month. 

This is the last match for Karnataka in the group stage. For this crucial match, the Karnataka Cricket Association took a bold decision by allowing Padikkal, who had only two matches of experience, as the captain. This is the first time that Padikkal has taken up the captaincy in the red ball format. In 2023, he captained a match in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Padikkal was given a chance to be the captain of Ranji, avoiding Mayank Agarwal, who was not in much form.

There were more interesting changes in the team announced for the match against Punjab. Team India players KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna joined the team. Due to the absence of Team India duties, both of them took the path of Ranji.

Another star batsman Karun Nair missed this match due to injury. Nikin Jose replaced Karun who was injured in the match against Madhya Pradesh. Another star player Abhinav Manohar was targeted. Manohar has been out of form for some time now. Mayank Agarwal will remain in the team as a regular player even if he is removed from the captaincy. While Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are in the lead, Saurashtra (fourth position) is increasing pressure from behind. In the background of the quarter final, the match against Punjab has become the most important for Karnataka.  

Karnataka Team (For Punjab Match)
- Mayank Agarwal  
- KL Rahul  
- Anish KV  
- Devdutt Padikkal (capt)  
- Smaran R  
- Shreyas Gopal  
- Kritik Krishna (wk)  
- Venkatesh M
- Vidyadhar Patil
- Vidyawat Kaveerappa
- Prasad Krishna
- Mohsin Khan
- Shikhar Shetty
- Sreejith (wk)
- Dhruv Prabhakar