In the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals, there will be a lot of players from the Indian team who will be seen in action for their respective domestic squads across Bengaluru. But with heavy rainfall and yellow alert issued for Bengaluru over the next few days, it doesn't augur well for Shubman Gill, who will be seeking some red-ball game time ahead of Edgbaston Test in July or for a Mayank Agarwal, who will be keen to get runs under his belt after a not-so-great time in IPL 2022 and losing out on Edgbaston Test.We take a look at how Karnataka stacks up against Uttar Pradesh while Punjab will be facing off against Madhya Pradesh: -
Quarterfinal 3 - Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh
Though retirements of R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun and with Prasidh Krishna missing the quarterfinal because of Edgbaston Test coming up, Karnataka's fast bowling attack will be largely lightweight despite being headed by Ronit More, who has 31 first-class appearances. Undoubtedly, their strength lies in their batting, boosted by Mayank Agarwal's presence. After having a lean IPL 2022 while captaining Punjab Kings and left out of India's squad for the Edgbaston Test, Agarwal would be looking to get huge runs. He will also be helped by Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey in the batting apart from spinners K Gowtham, J Suchith and Shreyas Gopal.Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, got a win over Maharashtra in their final league match. Rinku Singh, who had a breakthrough season with Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2022, is their leading run-scorer with 300 runs in six innings. With young pacers Yash Dayal and Mohsin Khan in their line-up apart from Priyam Garg and Akshdeep Nath carrying batting duties, Uttar Pradesh can be confident of giving a tough challenge to Karnataka.
Quarterfinal 4 - Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh
Punjab have a good blend of youth and experience. Mandeep Singh, Gurkeerat Singh and Siddarth Kaul have been around for long while Abhishek Sharma, Ramandeep Singh, Anmol Malhotra, Anmolpreet Singh and Prabhsimran Singh have been in great nick during the tournament. Their batting looks solid with the inclusion of Shubman Gill after being selected for Edgbaston Test in the quarter-final but would want more from leg-spin of Mayank Markande and Abhishek's left-arm spin. Madhya Pradesh, on the other side, can't be taken lightly. Rajat Patidar and Kumar Kartikeya Singh are coming into the tournament after breakout IPL 2022. Madhya Pradesh came into the knockouts after getting a point on the basis of first innings lead against Kerala, who came close to getting into the next stage of the tournament, thanks to opener Yash Dubey's career-best 289 and Patidar making 142. With Shubham Sharma and Ishwar Pandey in the mix, Madhya Pradesh can fancy their chances of putting up a fight against Punjab.