R Samarth set to replace Karun Nair at Vidarbha

What makes Karnataka cricket so special for Vidarbha? The answer may not be too hard to find as they seem to unearth their batting mainstays from the southern state. Vidarbha are set to rope in yet another Karnataka batter as a professional. After Ganesh Satish and Karun Nair, Ravikumar Samarth is now likely to turn out for the Central Zone side in the upcoming domestic season.

The 32-year-old batter, who played all his cricket for Karnataka before moving to Uttarakhand last season, is now set for another switch. The reigning Ranji Trophy champions are now close to signing the right-handed batter as a professional, somewhat as a like-for-like replacement for Karun Nair.

"I have taken the NOC from Uttarakhand and am waiting for the formalities (with Vidarbha)," Samarth, who is a veteran of 95 first class games, told Cricbuzz on Wednesday. Vidrabha Cricket Association (VCA) sources, however, have revealed to this website that Samarth is on way to being their new recruit. Dhruv Shorey, originally from Delhi, will continue to be their second professional.

Having begun his domestic career in 2013, Samarth stayed with his home state until the 2023-24 season, when he switched to Uttarakhand. In his lone season there, he featured in seven matches each across first-class, List A and T20 formats for the northern state, scoring 649, 385 and 184 runs respectively, with healthy averages of over 54, 55 and 30.

Overall, Samarth has 6157 runs (at an average of 39.72) in his 95 career first-class games.

Vidarbha have been looking for a proper replacement for Nair, who has decided to move to his home state this season because of personal reasons. He represented Vidarbha in the last couple of seasons and guided the team to Ranji champions last year, scoring a staggering 863 runs in nine games.

Prior to Nair, Vidarbha had Ganesh Satish who has featured in nine domestic seasons for Vidarbha between 2014-15 and 2022-23 seasons.

Cricbuzz reached out to Prashant Vaidya, the chairman of Vidarbha's Cricket Development Committee.