India head coach Gautam Gambhir had recently expressed his desire to see frontline Indian players making themselves available for the remainder of the premier d

KL Rahul will be unavailable for Karnataka for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, following the five-Test series against Australia.

Star Indian top-order batter KL Rahul has opted out of the 2024/25 Vijay Hazare Trophy knockout stage. Rahul played a lot of cricket in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia Down Under.

After an arduous series, Rahul was supposed to join the Karnataka team for the remaining rounds of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, as the team has reached the knockouts of the 50-over domestic tournament. But the wicketkeeper-batter has opted out of the tournament, requesting a break from the intense cricketing schedule and to reduce the workload.

The India batter has decided to take a short break and thus, won't feature for Karnataka in their knockout clash in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

KL Rahul, who played all the five Test matches against the Aussies, has requested for a break and will skip the Hazare knockouts

Southpaw Devdutt Padikkal and pacer Prasidh Krishna, both of whom were in the Test squad in Australia, will turn up for Karnataka in Vadodara.

With the England series starting on January 22, KL Rahul can make his return with the white-ball series against Three-Lions.