Three newcomers in Tamil Nadu Ranji squad

Young batter B Sai Sudharsan, all-rounder Saravana Kumar and pacer R Silambarasan earned their maiden call-up as the state senior selection committee on Wednesday named a 20-member Tamil Nadu contingent for the Ranji Trophy.

In the absence of veteran Dinesh Karthik, wicketkeeper-batter R Kavin, who had been a part of the Tamil Nadu squad in the past but is yet to make his red-ball debut, secured a spot in the travelling party. Having led the team admirably in the Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) Trophy and the Vijay Hazare (50-over) Trophy, Vijay Shankar has been retained as the captain.

All-rounder Washington Sundar has been appointed the vice-captain of Tamil Nadu, which will play its group stage matches in Ahmedabad from January 13, 2022. Tamil Nadu has been placed alongside defending champion Saurashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, Railways, Goa and Jharkhand in Elite Group D.

“The boys did well in both the tournaments (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy). So, we made sure that there is continuity in the squad. The players are equally good with the red ball,” selection panel chairman S Vasudevan told DT Next.

SQUAD: Vijay Shankar (c), Washington Sundar (vc), Baba Indrajith, Baba Aparajith, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Shahrukh Khan, B Sai Sudharsan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, L Suryapprakash, Kaushik Gandhi, Ganga Sridhar Raju, Sandeep Warrier, M Mohammed, R Silambarasan, Saravana Kumar, Aswin Crist, L Vignesh, R Sai Kishore, Manimaran Siddharth and R Kavin (wk)