Vijay Shankar to lead TN in first two Ranji matches

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s State Selection Committee named Baba Aparajith as Shankar’s deputy. A host of India internationals (Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar) found a place in the squad. Apart from ace off-spinner R Ashwin, three other slow bowlers are part of the set-up. R Sai Kishore, Murugan Ashwin and Manimaran Siddharth, coming on the back of good performances in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 competition, will look to continue their fine run, in the longer format. T Natarajan, K Vignesh and Abhishek Tanwar make up the fast bowling department.

There is no dearth of talent and experience as far as the batting is concerned. Seasoned campaigners (Mukund, Vijay and Karthik) and relatively younger guys (Aparajith, Narayan Jagadeesan, Shahrukh Khan and K Mukunth) are expected to combine well. Shankar and Sundar are the key all-rounders in the squad. Once Sundar joins the side for the second match, Mukunth will be released.

Tamil Nadu will open its campaign against rival Karnataka at the NPR College Ground in Dindigul on December 9. In its second contest, Tamil Nadu will host Himachal at the ICL – Sankar Nagar Ground in Tirunelveli on December 17.

Squad: Vijay Shankar (c), Baba Aparajith (vc), Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik, Narayan Jagadeesan, Ravichandran Ashwin, R Sai Kishore, T Natarajan, K Vignesh, Abhishek Tanwar, Murugan Ashwin, Manimaran Siddharth, Shahrukh Khan, K Mukunth and Washington Sundar.