The Karnataka pacers could make a big impact against Rajasthan

“If Karnataka treats us like an underdog, it suits us. Since they are the defending champions and struggling at the moment, the pressure will be on them to make things happen. We are okay with that.”
These words from Rajasthan captain Ashok Menaria reflected the guarded optimism of the home team on the eve of the Ranji Trophy match here at the SMS Stadium.
With some heavy showers on Wednesday signalling the onset of winter in the region, the teams would be looking at the change in conditions with added interest. After all, both teams rely more on their pace bowlers.
So far, at the halfway stage of their eight-match league campaign, these teams are searching for season’s first victory. After four matches each, Karnataka has eight points, three more than Rajasthan.
With opener K. L. Rahul and middle-order batsman Karun Nair selected to play for Board President’s XI in the two-day match against South Africa this week, Manish Pandey yet to recover from the finger-injury suffered inmatch against Haryana last week, A. Mithun nursing an ankle injury and H.S. Sharath down with fever, the Karnataka line-up looks lessthan formidable.
On the brighter side, Stuart Binny and S. Arvind are back from National duty.
Mayank Agarwal gets achance to open the inningswith Robin Uthappa while batsman Abhishek Reddy appearsset to debut in the National championship.
Desperately in need of a couple of outright wins in the remaining four league matches to make the knockout phase, Karnataka skipper Vinay Kumar was hoping the team’s seam attack gets some help from the surface here over the next four days.
“Our attack is good but since this Ranji Trophy season started a month earlier, the faster bowlers are not getting the desired pitches. I wish we get a green ‘top’. It will be nice to win a game ahead of a couple of home games,” he said.
Missing Pankaj
Menaria accepted that Rajasthan, in the absence of an injured pace-spearhead Pankaj Singh, could struggle to claim 20 wickets in a match. The non-availability of young Nathu Singh, made part of the Board President’s XI, did not worry Menaria much but he was missing the wicket-taking ability of Pankaj.
“On this pitch, Pankaj would have made a difference," said Menaria.
“Others in the pack are good but not as crafty as Pankaj. Since spinners have not had much success on this track, I expect pace bowlers from both teams to be among the wickets.”
The teams (likely):
Karnataka: R. Vinay Kumar (capt.), Robin Uthappa, Mayank Agarwal, R. Samarth, Abhishek Reddy, Shreyas Gopal, C.M. Gautam, Stuart Binny, J. Suchith, S. Arvind and David Mathias.
Rajasthan: Ashok Maneria (capt.), Suryaprakash Suwalka, Vineet Saxena, Vaibhav Deshpande, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Yadav, Dishant Yagnik, Deepak Chahar, Ajay Singh,  Aniket Chaudhary and Tamir-ul-Haq