Vijay Shankar’s presence will boost TN: Kanitkar

Under normal circumstances, TN would have aimed at an outright win against a lowly opponent like Tripura. But with the weather having the final word, the host was forced to be content with only three points.

With just four points from two matches and four games remaining, TN can’t afford to drop many points in its race to reach the knockout stage. Speaking after the match, Kanitkar stated the obvious and was upset that weather deprived TN of maximum points. 

“It’s disappointing. We had a great chance to push for a positive result. But we lost nearly two full days due to bad weather. Our plan was to score big in the first innings and we didn’t want to bat last,” said the 42-year-old. One source of cheer for the TN camp was the availability of allrounder Vijay Shankar for its next game against Mumbai. 

“The presence of Vijay Shankar will strengthen our team. He adds potency as he can bowl medium pace besides contributing with the bat. Not only him, we will also have Aparajith back and we expect Murali Vijay to regain his fitness in time,” added Kanitkar. 

Kanitkar said Dinesh Karthik would be unavailable as he has been included in India squad for the New Zealand ODI series. Sharing his thoughts on the road ahead for TN, Kanitkar said it will be an uphill task but one he believes is not beyond his team’s reach. 

“It’s not going to be easy. It will be a tough four games from now on. But it’s the same for all the teams. We won’t approach any of our matches with the premeditated thoughts of targeting an outright win. It doesn’t work that way,” remarked Kanitkar.