Rowland dropped from Karnataka side

Barrington Rowland has been dropped from the Karnataka squad after an indifferent start to the season © Getty Images

Karnataka have dropped opener Barrington Rowland from their Ranji Trophy team, while Robin Uthappa comes back into the side. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, who have joined the Indian team for the Test series against Pakistan, have been replaced by Gaurav Dhiman and Bharat Chipli.

Rowland has scored 47 runs in the two matches this season. He had an average season last time round, scoring 380 runs at 27.14. This is the first time Rowland has been dropped from the side since he made his debut in 1999.

Chipli, another opener, last played for Karnataka in last year's semi-final. He scored 3 and 95 in the loss to Bengal. Dhiman is a middle-order batsman who impressed with his aggressive batting for Indian Under-19 in the 2006 World Cup in Sri Lanka. However, on his first-class debut, he scored a duck against Tamil Nadu and hasn't played a game since.

Yere Goud will lead the side in the absence of Kumble and Dravid. Karnataka travel to Chennai to play Tamil Nadu in their next Ranji match, which starts on Friday.

Squad Robin Uthappa, KB Pawan, Bharat Chipli, Gaurav Dhiman, Yere Goud (capt), C Raghu, Thilak Naidu (wk), B Akhil, Sunil Joshi, R Vinay Kumar, NC Aiyappa, KP Appanna, Sudhindra Shinde, Devraj Patil, S Dhananjaya.