Karnataka stars ready to face Rajasthan

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 15: Karnataka have summoned the services of their heavy artillery -- Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Rahul Dravid, Venka...

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 15: Karnataka have summoned the services of their heavy artillery — Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Rahul Dravid, Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi — to suppress Rajasthan in the Group A tie starting on Wednesday.

Karnataka, languishing at the bottom of the pool with no points, should put it across Rajasthan. Barring Vijay Bharadwaj (not yet match-fit after suffering a back strain in Australia) and J Arunkumar, who will skip this match to be in time for the Board President’s XI vs South Africa game (starting in Mumbai on February 19), the hosts are in full strength.

Rajasthan will be without former India medium-pacer Sanjeev Sharma (down with stomach cramps). Left-arm spinner Mohamammed Aslam too has reported sick and increased the woes of the player-cum-manager Shamsher Singh.

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Teams: Karnataka: Anil Kumble (captain), J Arun Kumar, Mithun Beerala, Barrington, Rahul Dravid, Thilak Naidu (wk), B Akhil, Sunil Joshi, javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Dodda Ganesh, Mansoor AliKhan, Umesh, Rajshekar Shanbal and A Vijay.

Rajasthan: Gagan Khoda (captain), Krishnakumar, Anshu Jain, Rahul Kanwat, Jai Kumar, Rohit Thalani (w.k.), Kuldeep Singh, Nikhil Doru, Sabet Bhatia, Pramod Yadav, Anup Dave, Mohd Aslam, Gaurav Sharma, Shamsher Singh (player cum manager)

Hyderabad minus Azhar
HYDERABAD: Hyderabad will take on Bihar in the Group B match at the Gymkhana Grounds. Hyderabad and Bihar had finished second in their respective South Zone and East Zone preliminary league matches held earlier.

The hosts would be missing the services of their regular skipper and former Indian captain, Mohammed Azharuddin, who would be representing the Board President’s XI against South Africa.

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Teams: Hyderabad: Venkatapathi Raju (captain), VVS Laxman, Nanda Kishore, Vinay Kumar, Parth Satwalkar, Vanka Pratap, MV Sridhar, NP Singh, Youraj Singh, Kanwaljit Singh, Shivaji Yadav, Faiyaz Ahmed, Riaz Sheikh, Daniel Manohar, A Singh, Arjun Yadav. Coach: Arshad Ayub.

Bihar:Sunil Kumar (captainn), Rajeev Kumar, Nikhilesh Rajan, Dhiraj Kumar, Kunjan Saran, M Dony, M Diwakar, Sanjeev Upta, Anil Kumar, Vikas Kumar, Manish Kumar, Ratan Kumar, Shaheed Khan, Amir Asmi. Coach: Randhir Singh.

Other match: Uttar Pradesh vs Orissa at Kanpur, Delhi vs Bengal at Culcutta.