New Delhi: Karnataka's batting lynchpin Robin Uthappa has been left out their 16-man squad for the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Tamil Nadu.
But both KL Rahul and Karun Nair have been included in the state squad for the match, which starts on December 23 in Visakhapatnam.
Rahul and Nair impressed everyone with their epic knocks in the ongoing India-England fifth Test in Chennai.
Rahul was unlucky to missed out his maiden double hundred by a single run, but Nair made the most out his chance and went on to become only the second Indian to score a triple hundred.
Besides, the former champions will have the services of Manish Pandey.
"With the three batsmen back, selection was a tough process. We collectively decided to rest Robin since we couldn't play him in the XI," R Sudhakar Rao, KSCA's chairman of selectors, was qouted as saying by Cricinfo.
"The newcomers have done well and it would have been unfair to drop them, so we have taken the decision keeping the future of Karnataka cricket in mind," he added.
Uthappa was their highest run-getter last season. He made 328 runs in 12 innings at 27.33 in 2016-17.
