Ashwin Venkatraman has all qualities to captain the team: Coach

Ashwin, a right-hand batsman and a right arm medium pace bowler played for the same team last season. Ashwin has represented Tamil Nadu in the Under 15, 17, 22 and 25 categories, having captained the Under 17 and 25 teams. He has also represented league teams like TNCA City XI and Chemplast in the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament and the BCCI Corporate Trophy respectively. He plays for Alwarpet CC in the TNCA 1st Division League. 

Dragons coach M Venkataramana said as star player Ravichandran Ashwin will be away with the Indian team, a decision was taken to replace him as the captain. “Had he (R Ashwin) been available, he would have been an automatic choice. 

We were looking for an experienced player, who was playing in the first division very actively. Ashwin V also knows most of our players and it made an easy choice,” the ex-India player said. 

According to Venkataramana, Ashwin V has the qualities of a leader. “He is cool and patient. We feel he is the best choice as he is level headed. That is what we look at in a leader,” he added. With the TNCA league going on, Venkataramana said it was just a matter of getting together before the team starts its practice for the Tamil Nadu Premier League. 

“Most of them are playing regularly in the leagues and that makes it easy as they aren’t short of match practice. The switch to the T20 format from the longer format of the game would also not be a huge ask as playing the four-day format would have helped them get into the groove and give maximum endurance levels too,” Venkataramana added.