Left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore will lead Tamil Nadu in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season and Pradosh Ranjan Paul will be his deputy.
On Monday, the State senior selection committee picked a 15-member squad for the premier domestic competition that begins on January 5, 2024. Incidentally, Sai Kishore had been earmarked as a future skipper by the previous selection committee, which named him skipper for the final two matches of the last season. However, the 27-year-old led only in one game as he had to miss the final league encounter due to illness.
TN hasn’t qualified for the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy since the 2016-17 season and has not won a title since its triumph in the 1987-88 season.
In a significant boost to the pace attack, left-arm quick T. Natarajan makes a comeback to the squad for the first time in three years, having last played in 2020 against Railways in Chennai. Incidentally, his last First-Class game was his Test debut against Australia in Brisbane in 2021. Similarly, medium-pacer all-rounder M. Mohammed also returns to the team after being dropped in the previous year.
Madhya Pradesh pacer Kuldeep Sen, who joined as a guest player of the season, is unavailable for the first few games due to personal reasons and will join the squad once he is available.
However, the big surprise was the omission of the experienced B. Aparajith from the squad. The selectors have instead gone for young batters B. Sachin and R. Vimal Khumar, who have done well in the first-division league and age-group tournaments in recent times.
“We are looking to build a team for the future and have got a mix of youth and experience. There are some good players coming through the under-19 and under-23 levels as well, and we want to start the transition process slowly,” said U.R. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the selection committee.
The team will play two warm-up games against Baroda in Vadodara from December 22 to January 1, 2024.
The squad: R. Sai Kishore (Capt.), Pradosh Ranjan Paul, M.S. Washington Sundar, B. Sai Sudharsan, N. Jagadeesan, B. Indrajith, Vijay Shankar, S. Lokeshwar, S. Ajith Ram, B. Sachin, M. Mohammed, Sandeep Warrier, T. Natarajan, R. Vimal Khumar and H. Trilok Nag.
TN’s campaign: Jan. 5-8: vs Gujarat (Valsad); Jan. 12-15: vs Tripura (Agartala); Jan. 19-22: vs Railways (Coimbatore); Jan. 26-29: vs Chandigarh (Salem); Feb. 2-5: vs Goa (Porvorim); Feb. 9-12: vs Karnataka (MAC, Chennai); Feb. 16-19: vs Punjab (Coimbatore).
