The heady combination of youth experience that helped Karnataka end their five-year title drought with the Vijay Hazare Trophy triumph will add strength to the state side's quest for more trophies in the future, reckons head coach Yere Goud. Karnataka had parted ways with veteran batter and former skipper Manish Pandey mid-season. But newcomers such as Ravichandran Smaran, KV Aneesh, KL Shrijith and Abhilash Shetty stepped in seamlessly and chipped in alongside experienced players like Mayank Agarwal and Vasuki Koushik.
Goud, himself a former Karnataka skipper, said they started the preparations for the tournament with a course correction after getting knocked out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the quarterfinals.
“We'd good mix of young and seasoned players. It was all about harnessing them. After the end of the Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy, we knew the areas where we have to improve as a team. We defined the roles of the players for this tournament,” Goud told PTI.
Karnataka stopped the Vidarbha juggernaut in the title clash at Vadodara on Saturday.
Goud said Karnataka's transformation was helmed by captain Agarwal, who had a wonderful outing as the leader and a batter.
“Our campaign went well because Mayank performed well as a captain and batter. He had a good season in Ranji Trophy and in the SMAT. So, when he started well, it percolated to others. It was amazing to see him performing the twin role,” he said.
Vidarbha's Karun Nair (779 runs from 9 matches, Avg: 389.50) hogged all the limelight during a stellar run, but Agarwal was not far behind.
He was the second highest run-getter with 651 runs from 10 matches at an average of 93 with four hundreds.
Goud also lavished praise on young names such as Smaran, Aneesh and
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