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‘Our Karnataka boys will teach Pakistanis how it’s done’ – Fans react as Karnataka team to play five one-dayers against Nambia

Karnataka will play all the games at Windhoek.

May 31, 2023 11:52 am

In a major development, the Karnataka team will fly down to Namibia to play a five-match One Day series against the African nation. The series is slated to begin on June 2. The matches will take place at Windhoek the national capital. Namibia has been an associate member of the Cricket Governing Body since 1992. The African nation however failed to qualify for the ODI World Cup. They finished third in the playoff qualifier that happened in March of 2023.

The state team has been made up of the previous season’s senior, U-25 and U-19 squads. The team is most likely to be led by opener R Samarth and comprises senior batter KV Siddharth, youngsters Vishat Onat who starred in the recent Ranji Trophy season and Nikin Jose and the pace duo of Vyshak Vijaykumar and Vidwath Kaverappaa. Vijaykumar and Kaverappaa got stints in the Indian Premier League 2023 edition. Vijaykumar played for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Karnataka have hosted USA in India for an ODI series previously

Vyshak picked up nine wickets in the seven games that he played at an average of 28.11 and at an economy rate of 10.54. This was his debut season in the IPL. He came to RCB after being picked up as a replacement player when Rajat Patidar was ruled out of IPL 2023 due to a heel injury. Kaverappaa also got picked up by the Punjab Kings at 20Lakh INR. The fast bowler impressed with his raw pace in domestic cricket. But he could not get a game in PBKS colours.

Although the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has not named a coach for the season, PV Shashikanth, the senior team coach last season, will travel with the team to Namibia. Karnataka have played against an international team before. The team from South India hosted USA in a limited overs One Day series in India and won.

Team: Samarth R, Vishal Onat, Nikin Jose, KV Siddharth, Kishan Bidare, Kruthik Krishna, Shubhang Hegde, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Vidwath Kaverappa, Aneeshwar Gautam, Lochan Appanna, Chetan LR, Aditya Goyal, Rishi Boppanna;

Coach: PV Shashikanth;

Physio: Jaba Prabhu;

Manager: Anutosh Poll;

Official: Carlton Saldanha.

Dates for Matches: June 2, 4, 7, 9 & 11.

Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:

Joint planning by KSCA & RCB to lift IPL title next year 🙂

— Aayush Agarwal 🇮🇳 (@AayushAgarwal99) May 30, 2023

Good concept all the associated nation need to match against state teams of different countries

— Manish 🇮🇳 (@chauhan276) May 30, 2023

@BCCI or the local cricket associations should promote this on a high level to give exposure to the local players as well as the associate nations.@prasannalara anything stops the state cricket associations from arranging such series?

— Sasidaranᵛᵃˡᶤᵐᵃᶤ (@SasidaranSri) May 30, 2023

This is something different 😀👍
Good exposure for both sides.

— Akhil (@Akhil3017) May 30, 2023

Great initiative. All big cricket boards such as BBCI, ECB, CA, CSA should play some state association teams or 2nd or 3rd string International teams against Associate Nation state teams to popularise the game.

— Thomas Shelby (@SnarkyScribe) May 30, 2023

Welcome move…. Will be a good exposure and learning curve for both the sides.. Namibia will get some valuable match practice before the WC qualifiers while Karnataka can make the most of it as a pre-season camp!

— Soumarya Dutta (@dutta_soumarya) May 30, 2023