KL Rahul was dismissed for 26 off 37 balls during Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy match against Haryana at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Coming in to bat No. 3, Rahul stitched a 54-run partnership with skipper Mayank Agarwal for the second wicket before being nabbed by pacer Anshul Kamboj.

Rahul is playing his first Ranji Trophy match since February 2020, when he faced off against Bengal during the semifinal at Eden Gardens. He had scored 26 and 0 in that game as Karnataka lost by 174 runs.

Rahul had missed Karnataka’s previous Ranji Trophy game of the ongoing season against Punjab due to an elbow injury. His last domestic First-class appearance came during the Duleep Trophy in September last year when he turned out for India A in a losing cause.

Karnataka, placed third in Group C, finds itself in a precarious position ahead of the knockouts and will need to win outright against table-topper Haryana to keep its hopes alive in the tournament.

It will also hope that Kerala doesn’t win outright against bottom-placed Bihar.