Injury-hit Delhi to take on Karnataka

New Delhi, Nov 9 : A depleted Delhi side will face a stiff challenge from Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy Super League tie at the Roshanara Club here Tuesday.

Delhi, which was already missing international players Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra who are on national duty, has been hit by a spate of injuries as well.

Skipper Akash Chopra is unlikely to make it to the final eleven due to "degeneration in knee". A decision on him, however, will be taken Tuesday morning. If Chopra fails to take the ground, the 29-year-old medium pacer Joginder Singh will be making his debut and vice-captain Shikhar Dhawan will lead the side.

Leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda, who sprained his ankle during the net-session at Baroda, has been ruled out of the match while Mithun Minhas continues to be unavailable due to a sprained groin.

To add to the Delhi woes, their young left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan will be away for the Board XI match against the touring Sri Lankans in Mumbai Tuesday.

The Delhi attack could have done better in their opening match in Baroda when they failed to press home the advantage after asking Baroda to follow on. The match, in which Dhawan stroked an impressive double century, ended in a draw.

Karnataka, on the other hand, are buoyed after beating Uttar Pradesh by massive 185 runs in their own backyard. The performances of youngsters Manish Pandey, who smashed 194, and medium pacer Abhimanyu Mithun, who took 11 wickets on his debut, were the cornerstone of the victory.

The side will be missing captain Robin Uthappa, also away for Board President XI match. Rahul Dravid will captain the side in his absence.

Dravid, himself in a good nick, hitting 97 and 51 not out against Uttar Pradesh, said he is not taking Delhi lightly.

"Delhi is a good side. It's going to be competitive match whichever side they put in the park. Also, they are playing in the home conditions which obviously will favour them," Dravid said.

"It should be a good track, hopefully it will have something for the bowlers. As it settles down, it should become a good batting pitch. Hopefully, we will be able to find a result in the match, whichever way it goes."

Chopra chose to remain positive and said it is a good opportunity for the youngsters to prove themselves.

"Every captain wants a fit 15-man squad. But we have some very good youngsters in the side and it is an opportunity for them."

Asked whether his bowling attack is capable of taking 20 wickets, Chopra said: "We have the same bowlers who helped us to win the championship, so I don't see why they could not do the same."

Squad:

Delhi: Akash Chopra (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ankur Julka, Guarav Chabbra, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Nagar, Mayank Tehlan, Puneet Bisht, Sumit Narwal, Aditya Jain, Darshan Karjania, Pawan Suyal, Paevez Chikara, Abhishek Sharma, Parvinder Awana.

Karnataka: Rahul Dravid (captain), K.B. Pawan, C.M. Gautam, Amit Verma, Manish Pandey, Tilak Naidu, B. Akhil, Sunil Joshi, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Udit Patel, Ganesh Satish, Stewart Binny, S. Arvind, Ryan Ninan.

Umpires: Kamlesh Sharma , Vilas Karhadkar

Match Refree: Amar Petiwale

--IANS