Preview: Rajasthan won the toss and they have elected to bat first against Tamil Nadu in the first semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Ahmedabad.

Sandeep Warrier is not playing today for Tamil Nadu because he has been released from the squad to fly back to Chennai and join the Indian team as a net bowler. For Rajasthan, Aditya Garhwal replaces Ankit Lamba.

Last year's runners up, Tamil Nadu will once again look to book a spot in the final, which is set to be played on 31 January and clinch the title. Last time, they lost the trophy against Karnataka by just one run.

Key player for Tamil Nadu is their batsman Shahrukh Khan while N Jagadeesan is their highest run-getter this season. Rajasthan's strength is their bowling with the likes of Ravi Bishnoi, Khaleel Ahmed and Aniket Chaudhary need to step up again against a strong batting line-up.

Playing XI:

Rajasthan: Bharat Sharma (wk), Aditya Garhwal, Ashok Menaria (c), Mahipal Lomror, Rajesh Bishnoi, Arjit Gupta, Chandrapal Singh, Aniket Choudhary, Ravi Bishnoi, Khaleel Ahmed, Tanveer-Ul-Haq

Tamil Nadu: Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith, Arun Karthik, Sonu Yadav, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, M Mohammed, Murugan Ashwin, Aswin Crist.