Murali Vijay, the Indian opening batsman, has been named in the Tamil Nadu Ranji squad for their next encounter against Mumbai. Vijay played the first game of the season for the state but injured himself while taking a run and then went on to miss the second game due to neck spasm. However, he has regained his fitness and is all set to mark his comeback.
He will also get his opening place back in the team, which means that Washington Sundar will be pushed down again. The 18-year-old all-rounder played an innings of 159 his side while opening the innings but he has to leave that slot due to Vijay’s return. He will be opening the innings with Abhinav Mukund, the captain and one of the contenders for the opening slot in the Indian cricket team.
Along with Vijay, Baba Aprajith and Vijay Shankar have also made a comeback to the Ranji squad. Both the all-rounders were part of the India A squad in the A series that was played ahead of the practice games between New Zealand and Board President’s XI.
Tamil Nadu have received a big boost with their comebacks and Vijay’s inclusion in the team is like icing on the cake. Though they will miss the services of Dinesh Karthik, who is a part of the India ODI squad for series against New Zealand. Karthik was a part of the squad for T20I series as well and flew to the side to play their previous game as soon as last T20I was abandoned in Hyderabad.
Tamil Nadu have a great challenge in front of them as Mumbai is also expected to avail the services of players like Shreyas Iyer, Dhawal Kulkarni and Prithvi Shaw, who all were part of Board President’s XI squad to face New Zealand before the start of the series. Shardul Thakur’s non-availability will be a lacking factor in this team. He made a comeback to the Indian team for the series against New Zealand.
Tamil Nadu squad against Mumbai: Abhinav Mukund (captain), B Indrajith (vice-captain), M Vijay, M Kaushik Gandhi, B Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, N Jagadeesan (WK), Washington Sundar, R Sai Kishore, Rahil S Shah, K Vignesh, R Ashwin, V Yo Mahesh, L Vignesh, R Rohith (WK) and V Ganga Sridhar Raju.