CHENNAI: For a six-time Ranji Trophy champion side, Karnataka’s strategy against Jammu and Kashmir has been baffling. On Friday, when they had the opportunity to enforce a follow-on, they chose to bat. In this truncated format, every point counts and not going for an outright win may come back to bite them. Admittedly, they were one bowler short with Ronit More injured, but having bowled just 30 overs, they had enough firepower to play on.
Justifying the team’s decision to bat, bowling coach Sreenath Arvind explained, “We considered the option of follow-on but Prasidh had bowled a long spell (12 overs) and Ronit was injured. This meant we had to go in with just two fast bowlers (Vidhyadhar Patil, the other pacer). So we thought of setting a big target and bowling out J&K.”
