Dinesh Karthik to lead Tamil Nadu in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Shankar named deputy

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu senior state selection committee, led by S Vasudevan, met at the MA Chidambaram stadium and selected 20 players for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. Tamil Nadu begin their campaign at Kolkata on Jan 10. Dinesh Karthik has been reappointed as skipper of the side, with Vijay Shankar his deputy.

The team was selected based on what the selectors saw during the practice matches played on Tuesday and Wednesday. "The team has a good mixture of experience and youth in its ranks. We did not need much time to pick the team as we pencilled down the players' (names) during the practice games,'' said S Vasudevan, chairman of the selection committee.

There are three wicketkeepers in Karthik, N Jagadeesan and KB Arun Karthik in the twenty-member squad. "Dinesh Karthik will be keeping. Jagadeesan is the second wicketkeeper, while we have picked Arun Karthik purely as a batsman,'' clarified Vasudevan.

The former Ranji Trophy-winning captain was impressed by the talent pool in the state. "We (selectors) were very happy to watch the players in action. Some of them had not played competitive cricket for a long time, few came back from injuries. Sonu Yadav bowled well in the practice games, Aswin Crist, making a comeback after injury was impressive, also Sandeep Warrier,'' opined the former left-arm spinner with 214 first-class wickets.

Shankar who was injured during the IPL, has recovered well. They will be without the services of R Ashwin, T Natarajan and Washington Sundar who are in Australia. Varun Chakravarthy, who is yet to recover from his shoulder injury, is also not there, so it is a wonderful opportunity for youngsters to make an impression.

"I am very satisfied with the team we have. It covers all the bases. It is a wonderful opportunity for youngsters to make a mark as some players are not available as they are in Australia. The wickets in Kolkata will help seamers and we have five quality medium-pacers in our ranks,'' said D Vasu, chief coach of the Tamil Nadu team.

"The team has a fair amount of young players as the format is all about youth. Among the batters, youngsters like Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Hari Nishaanth and Shahrukh Khan were impressive and all of them will get opportunities to play. We should do well in the tournament. It all boils down to whether our boys play to potential,'' added the former NCA coach.

Team: Dinesh Karthik (captain), Vijay Shankar (vice captain), B Aparajith, B Indrajith, M Shahrukh Khan, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, KB Arun Karthik, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, M Mohammed, Sandeep Warrier, M Ashwin, R Sai Kishore, M Siddharth, Aswin Crist, L Suryapprakash, RS Jaganath Sinivas, R Sonu Yadav, J Kousik, G Periyasamy.