The left-handed batsman Abhinav Mukund, who last played for India in the year 2011, has been retained as the captain of Tamil Nadu Ranji team for the upcoming season. The former under 19 player Baba Aprajith has been announced as his deputy for the season. However, the selectors were in a tizzy to choose between Aprajith and Mukund, the experience of Mukund and taste of international cricket worked in his favour and thus he was retained as the captain, “Both Abhinav and Aparajith are high-quality players who have shown great leadership skills in the past and it was a tough call,” said the selector on being asked regarding the captaincy.
The Under 19 player Washington Sundar has been rewarded with a selection in Ranji trophy team as well. The rookie performed raised many eyebrows with his all-round show in Under 19 world cup and played quite well in TNPL as well. He was also selected in Tamil Nadu squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy but was pulled out of the team game as BCCI then instructed the state Boards not to allow any U19 player to play in that league keeping in mind the upcoming IPL auction. Selection in the Ranji Trophy squad is a big break for the young all-rounder, this will be his biggest stage to attract national selectors as now he is not allowed to play next Under 19 world cup as per the new rules.
The squad also includes Baba Indrajith, the twin brother of Aprajith, along with him the team has regulars like Dinesh Karthik, N Jagadeesan, Malolan Rangarajan, spinner Rahil Shah as well.
Leg spinner, Murugan Ashwin, who minted Rs. 4.5 crores in IPL auction and also made India Blue squad for the inaugural edition of pink ball Duleep trophy, is the notable exclusion from the squad. All-rounder Vijay Shankar who played for India A last year is not fit as of now and will make it to the squad the moment he is fit to participate in the tournament.
Tamil Nadu will kick off their Rani Trophy campaign with the first match against Mumbai at Chaudhary Bansi Lal stadium, Lahli.
The team will miss out on services of L Balaji who retired from first-class cricket a few days back; however, he will soon join the squad with a capacity of assistant coach soon
Tamil Nadu Squad is as follows –
Abhinav Mukund (captain), B Aparajith (vice-captain), B Indrajith, MS Washington Sundar, N Jagadeesan, K Dinesh Karthik, J Kousik, L Suryaprakash, Rahil S Shah, Malolan Rangarajan, R Aushik Srinivas, A Aswin Crist, M Mohammed, K Vignesh, T Natarajan, M Kaushik Gandhi.