They will not be on opposing sides on Wednesday, as Ashwin’s Tamil Nadu will compete against the Parthiv Patel-led Gujarat at the Just Cricket Academy grounds. Agarwal, on the other hand, will join Karnataka for the semi-final against Chhattisgarh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Rains have been pouring in the city for the past two weeks, and the forecast for Wednesday looks bleak. With the drainage facility far from being top notch at the Just Cricket Academy, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, there is a real risk of a shortened contest or a no result, as was the case on Monday, with Tamil Nadu edging out Punjab due to more wins in the group stage.
Rahul has accumulated 458 runs in nine innings, with a century and three fifties while Padikkal is the sixth-highest run scorer overall, with 506 runs in nine innings, comprising two centuries and four half-centuries.
Meanwhile, Ashwin, whose inclusion could lead Tamil Nadu to field two specialist spinners – legspinner M Ashwin being the other – recently became the joint-fastest to 350 test wickets alongside Muttiah Muralitharan. He achieved the feat in his 66th Test.
Ashwin (357) is India’s 4th highest wicket-taker in tests, with only Harbhajan Singh (417), Kapil Dev (434) and Anil Kumble (619) ahead of him in the list.
