Recovered Mayank Agarwal returns to lead Karnataka in Ranji Trophy

Prolific opener Mayank Agarwal has successfully overcome a recent health scare and will return to lead Karnataka against Tamil Nadu in their next Ranji Trophy Group C match in Chennai from Friday.

The India batter had consumed a liquid on board the team’s flight to Surat after their match against Tripura.

The 32-year-old had to be admitted to a hospital to treat a burning sensation in his mouth and throat.

He consequently missed Karnataka’s last engagement against Railways owing to a health scare. However, he was cleared of any major medical hazards during the medical inspections here, clearing the ground for his comeback to the team.

Promising batter Nikin Jose had led Karnataka against Railways in the absence of Agarwal and the former champions eked out a nervy one-wicket win at Surat with veteran Manish Pandey making an unbeaten fifty.

Currently, Tamil Nadu lead Group C with 21 points, the same as Karnataka. But TN are leading the chart because of their better net run rate 2.06.

Agarwal’s return will boost their batting as the Karnataka opener so far has scored 310 runs from four matches at an average of 44 with two hundreds and a fifty.

Karnataka have also received further boost in batting as the in-form Devdutt Padikkal too will be available selection for this match.

From three matches, the left-hander has amassed 369 runs at an average of 92.25 with two hundreds.

Padikkal missed the last match because the 23-year-old was part of the India A squad that faced England Lions at Ahmedabad.

Opener Dega Nischal and Abishek Shetty moved aside for Agarwal and Padikkal.

Karnataka squad against TN: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Nikin Jose (vice-captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Samarth R, Manish Pandey, Sharath Srinivas (wk), Aneesh KV, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Vasuki Koushik, Shashikumar K, Sujay Sateri (wk), Vidwath Kaverappa, Venkatesh M, Kishan S Bedare, Rohit Kumar AC, Hardik Raj. Coach: PV Shashikanth.