Leg-spinner Karn Sharma and star Indian batsman who was recently left out of the ODI squad for the New Zealand series KL Rahul has been added to the Board President XI squad that will take on New Zealand in two warm-up matches scheduled to take place in Mumbai on October 17 and 19.
Karn, who had an impressive run with the ball against the New Zealand A side across all formats has been called up to replace the 18-year-old injured leg-spinner Rahul Chahar. He took 16 wickets in the two unofficial tests against the New Zealand A side and continued his good form in the limited over series by taking nine wickets in four matches including a five-for.
He also played a crucial knock of 38 runs in the final match to take his side over the rope. The cricketer from Railways also had a fair show in the Duleep Trophy taking two five wickets haul at the start of the season last month.
KL Rahul, the cricketer from Karnataka did not feature in a single match against the mighty Australian side who lost the ODI series 4-1 and was left out of the upcoming series against New Zealand. It will be a good opportunity for the star batsman to make a mark and be in the good book of the selectors.
The Mumbai batsman, Shreyas Iyer will lead the Board President XI who had a good stint with the bat in the recently concluded series.
Board President’s XI team: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Mann, Prithvi Shaw, Shivam Chaudhary, Milind Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Avesh Khan.
– by Atharva Apte
