KL Rahul, Prasidh Krishna headline Karnataka’s Vijay Hazare Trophy squad:BCCI’s strict rule for players to feature in domestic tournaments, Mayank Agarwal named captain

Karnataka has named KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal and Prasidh Krishna in its squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, in line with the BCCI’s recent directive that India players feature in the domestic one-day competition. The board has made it mandatory for all current national team cricketers to play at least two matches in the tournament, taking advantage of the three-week window between India’s final T20I against South Africa in Ahmedabad on December 19 and the first ODI against New Zealand on January 11, 2026. Although Rahul, Prasidh and Padikkal are not part of the current T20I squad, their absence from that series has cleared the way for them to be available for Karnataka’s opener against Jharkhand on December 24. Karnataka has been drawn in Group A alongside Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Tripura, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, with all league fixtures scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad. Mayank Agarwal will continue to lead the side despite Karnataka’s failure to reach the knockout stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, while Karun Nair has been named his deputy. The full squad reads: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair (vice-captain), R Smaran, KL Shrijith, Abhinav Manohar, Shreyas Gopal, Vyshak Vijayakumar, L Manvanth Kumar, Shreesha S Achar, Abhilash Shetty, BR Sharath, Harshit Dharmani, Dhruv Prabhakar, KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna.