BANGALORE, February 4: Punjab suffered a setback even before they began their Group "A" Ranji Trophy Super League fixture as their star batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu opted out against a full-strength Karnataka, beginning here at the Chinnaswamy Stadium from Thursday.Though the official list circulated by the KSCA does not contain the name of Sidhu, team manager Bhupinder Singh said there was a possibility that Sidhu might turn up by evening.
Karnataka have omitted former Test medium-pacer Dodda Ganesh from the 12 and the odd-man out from the team could well be another successful medium-pacer David Johnson. The wicket is likely to assist medium-pacers early.
Punjab have reasonable batting strength. Led by opening batsman Vikram Rathore they have good utility batsmen in seasoned Pankaj Dharmani and Dinesh Mongia. The bowling, led by Indian medium-pacer Harvinder, with Sandeep Sharma supporting him, has been adequate. Sujith Somasundar, Vijay Bharadwaj, Arun Kumar and Kumble have scored over 200 runs in theSouth Zone league phase. With star batsman Rahul Dravid leading the batting from the front, Karnataka have reason to feel confident of putting across Punjab without much bother. Though Javagal Srinath did not turn up for practice today, he is sure to play. Srinath, in tandem with Prasad, have a psychological advantage.
Teams
Karnataka (from): Anil Kumble (captain); Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, B Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, J Arun Kumar, Sujith Somasundar, Vijay R Bharadwaj, Somashekar Shiraguppi, David Johnson, HT Girish Rao, Fazal Khaleel. Reserves: D Ganesh, Anand Katti, DS Ananth.
Punjab: Vikram Rathore (c), Dinesh Mongia, Pankaj Dharmani, Manav Mehra, Aashish Kapoor, Bharati Vij, Harvinder Singh, Bharat Bhushan, Harbhajan Singh, Rakesh Saini, Ajay Mehra, Sandeep Sharma, Harminder Kaku, Sanjeev Kapooria, Navdeep Singh.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
