KL Rahul to play for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy; Nitish Kumar Reddy confirms availability for Andhra Pradesh

NEW DELHI: Senior India batter KL Rahul is all set to feature for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy. The right-handed batter is expected to play the fixture starting on January 29 against

Punjab

in Mullanpur but will be missing the game against Madhya Pradesh in Alur from January 22. The Punjab vs Karnataka game will attract a lot of eyeballs as apart from Rahul, India Test captain

Shubman Gill

is also very likely to feature in that game.Gill has already joined his state side for the January 22 clash vs Saurashtra in Rajkot and the contest will also feature India all-rounder

Ravindra Jadeja

. As TimesofIndia.com had reported on December 23, Gill had made up his mind on the domestic appearances after the T20 World Cup snub and wanted to maximise his game time before the IPL gets underway next month.

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Punjab need two outright wins in their last two group games to improve their qualification chances but the side will have their task cut out against formidable Saurashtra and Karnataka units. In another development, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy will also be playing for Andhra in their remaining two fixtures vs Vidarbha and Nagaland. Placed second Group A, the side has a strong chance to advance to the knockout stages and if that happens, it will result in more game time for the 22-year-old all-rounder.Reddy recently featured in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand and scored a half-century in the Indore ODI.

The management is looking at him as a backup for Hardik Pandya in limited-overs set-up and wants the youngster to get a lot of game time before the next international assignment.

Pant likely to miss Ranji Trophy

India Test vice-captain

Rishabh Pant

is unlikely to feature in the red-ball tournament as he was not named in Delhi squad for their game versus Chhattisgarh and a senior DDCA official informs that he is unlikely to regain fitness before the next group game on January 29. It is further understood that the wicketkeeper-batter could be headed to the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in the coming days.