TN name young guns for final Ranji league clash

CHENNAI: Ahead of their final Ranji clash against Delhi here from Monday, Tamil Nadu selectors have chosen to infuse young blood in the form of Pradosh Ranjan Paul, S Lokeshwar, S Radhakrishnan and S Mohan Prasath. Middle-order batsmen Pradosh and Radhakrishnan have been among runs on the age-group circuit.
Pradosh, currently featuring in the U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, has so far scored 321 runs from 5 outings.Lokeshwar (490 from 7 games) and S Radhakrishnan (350 in 7 matches) shone with the willow in the ongoing ongoing Col CK Nayudu Trophy. Pradosh and Radhakrishnan make the squad in place of Kaushik Gandhi and Abhishek Tanwar. His form with the bat notwithstanding, Lokeshwar comes into the side as a wicketkeeper in place of Dinesh Karthik who is unavailable due to India commitments. The team already has N Jagadeesan as its No. 1 glovesman.
Left-arm spinner Mohan Prasath has been a revelation this season, and is currently the fifth highest wicket-taker in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy with 39 wickets from 7 matches. He comes into the squad in place of Rahil Shah.
"We purely went in with players who have been performing well in the age-group level. With the experienced players unable to raise their game during crunch situations, we had look at our young guns. The season is gone but it's important to look at the future and these fresh faces are the ones we will want to groom. They have done well so far in age-group cricket and we want to see if they are good enough to feature in the senior level," said one of the selectors.
It is likely that Mohan and Pradosh could make their first-class debuts against Delhi. "With the track at Chepauk aiding the spinners, it will be nice to give Mohan a go. As far as Pradosh is concerned, he has shown a lot of maturity for an under-19 cricketer and should get a game," said the selector.
TN Squad: B Indrajith (captain), Abhinav Mukund, N Jagadeesan, B Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, S Radhakrishnan, S Lokeshwar, T Natarajan, K Vignesh, M Mohammed, R Sai Kishore, S Mohan Prasath, J Kousik and M Shahrukh Khan.