<p>Bengaluru: Experienced opener Mayank Agarwal was on Wednesday named as Karnataka captain for the first two matches of the upcoming Ranji Trophy season.</p>.<p>The promising young batsman Nikin Jose has been appointed as Agarwal’s deputy.</p>.<p>However, KL Rahul has not been named in the 16-man squad considering India’s upcoming assignments at home against Afghanistan (three T20Is) and England (five Tests) across January and February.</p>.Gavaskar rates K L Rahul's latest Centurion ton 'in top 10 of India's Test history'.<p>Agarwal had a big 2022-23 domestic season emerging as the top run-getter in the circuit with 990 runs from nine matches at average of 82.50 that contained three hundreds and six fifties.</p>.<p>Karnataka will open their Ranji campaign against Punjab at Hubli from January 5-8 and in their second match, the former champions will face Gujarat in Ahmedabad from January 12-15.</p>.<p>Former batsman PV Shashikanth has been retained as the coach of the side.</p>.<p>Karnataka squad: Mayank Agarwal (c), Ravikumar Samarth, Devdutt Padikkal, Nikin Jose (vc), Manish Pandey, Shubhang Hegde, Sharath Srinivas (wk), Vysakh Vijayakumar, Vasuki Koushik, Vidwath Kaverappa, K Shashikumar, Sujay Sateri (wk), D Nischal, M Venkatesh, Kishan S Bedare, AC Rohit Kumar.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Experienced opener Mayank Agarwal was on Wednesday named as Karnataka captain for the first two matches of the upcoming Ranji Trophy season.</p>.<p>The promising young batsman Nikin Jose has been appointed as Agarwal’s deputy.</p>.<p>However, KL Rahul has not been named in the 16-man squad considering India’s upcoming assignments at home against Afghanistan (three T20Is) and England (five Tests) across January and February.</p>.Gavaskar rates K L Rahul's latest Centurion ton 'in top 10 of India's Test history'.<p>Agarwal had a big 2022-23 domestic season emerging as the top run-getter in the circuit with 990 runs from nine matches at average of 82.50 that contained three hundreds and six fifties.</p>.<p>Karnataka will open their Ranji campaign against Punjab at Hubli from January 5-8 and in their second match, the former champions will face Gujarat in Ahmedabad from January 12-15.</p>.<p>Former batsman PV Shashikanth has been retained as the coach of the side.</p>.<p>Karnataka squad: Mayank Agarwal (c), Ravikumar Samarth, Devdutt Padikkal, Nikin Jose (vc), Manish Pandey, Shubhang Hegde, Sharath Srinivas (wk), Vysakh Vijayakumar, Vasuki Koushik, Vidwath Kaverappa, K Shashikumar, Sujay Sateri (wk), D Nischal, M Venkatesh, Kishan S Bedare, AC Rohit Kumar.</p>