Tamil Nadu Cricket Association announced squad for the semi-finals against Mumbai sans Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay. Ashwin is suffering from a sports hernia and needs some more time to rest to be fit for the ODI series against England whereas Vijay is yet to recover from the shoulder injury. Tamil Nadu will miss both players badly as the addition of these two would have been a big boost for the team.
Team’s success will mainly depend on Dinesh Karthik, skipper Abhinav Mukund, all-rounder Vijay Shankar and their bowling superstar Aswin Crist, who toppled the star-studded batting line-up of Karnataka in the last game scalping seven wickets in the game. He along with Thangarasu Natarajan sailed Tamil Nadu to an emphatic win over Karnataka, within a matter of just two days.
The Spinners of both teams will have a crucial role to play on a slow Rajkot track.
Tamil Nadu, surprisingly, will go in the game as the favourites as injury-marred Mumbai will again miss the services of Akhil Herwadkar and Dhawal Kulkarni. Also with Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane not the part of the squad, Mumbai looks a bit of weak team this time.
Tamil Nadu will have a chance to take revenge of their loss against Mumbai, which they suffered in the first game of the season at Lahli.
The five-day fixture starts from January 1 and will be played at Rajkot. Tamil Nadu will look to move a step closer and end their quest to win the trophy after a period of 28 years whereas Mumbai would like to fulfil their dream of winning the cup for the 42nd time.