CHENNAI: The players draft for the third edition of
Tamil Nadu Premier League
held here on Thursday went as per the script. The most prominent T20 players from the state —
Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar and
Washington Sundar — were lapped up by franchises in the opening round of the draft.
While Washington was back with
Tuti Patriots
— the team he played for in the first two seasons — Dinesh Karthik went to IDream Karaikudi Kaalai. Vijay Shankar will don the jersey of
Chepauk Super Gillies
. While Karthik was part of Tuti Patriots in previous seasons, Vijay Shankar represented
Lyca Kovai Kings
.
Washington — who is part of the limited-over sides during India’s tour of England — said that he would miss only the first two games of the competition. “I may not be available for the first two games, but will be there for the rest of the tournament,” Washington said at the draft. Karthik, who features in the national team as well, will return to be part of
TNPL
if he isn’t named in the side for the ensuing Test series in England. But if he does so, then the wicketkeeper-batsman could miss the entire season for Karaikudi. The franchise has named S Anirudha as the skipper for the season. Vijay Shankar, who will be part of the India A sides on the tour of England, too will have to give the first two games for Chepauk side a miss before joining them.
Dindigul Dragons
— who retained R Ashwin — confirmed that the star offie will play a few games before leaving for the Test series in England. “Ashwin will be available for the first few games before he leaves for his national duty. I am not aware of the exact dates (as to when he will leave) but he is there for the first few games. While Ashwin is our regular captain, N Jagadeesan — who was also retained by us — will take over as the skipper in his absence,” said HR Srinivasan, the team owner, during the draft. The other big names in the fray — Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund — were chosen by
Ruby Trichy Warriors
and Lyca Kovai Kings respectively.
Super Gillies owner bats for auctions instead of draft: Sivanthi Adityan, owner of defending champions Chepauk Super Gillies, felt having auctions instead of players draft should be the way forward for TNPL. “An auction gives more room for teams to nurture talent. There will be motivation to nurture talent if there is an option for private signing. From cricketers’ perspective, by private signing they get to play for the team they want to — which is important,” said Adityan on Thursday. He also pointed out that TNPL as a brand had to do more in order to grow as a brand. “We do need outstation players and international players to evolve. Otherwise we are going to be stagnant,” Adityan said.
Sriram to mentor Madurai franchise: Former India cricketer Sridharan Sriram was named mentor of the
Siechem Madurai Panthers
. J Arun Kumar will be coaching the side. It was earlier reported that Bharath Reddy will be donning the coach's role, but the franchise informed that he has been relieved of his duties. Pooja Damodaran, CEO of the franchise, chose not to comment on the reasons for Reddy not being part of the side, but added, “We are happy to have Arun on board as he is a competent coach and has done well with state sides like Karnataka and also been associated with IPL franchises such as Kings XI Punjab before.”
Monty Desai to be Kovai's mentor coach: Monty Desai, who was part of Tuti Patriots in the first two editions, will be in the Lyca Kovai Kings dugout as mentor coach.
Squads:Tuti Patriots: Washington Sundar (captain), Kaushik Gandhi (vice-captain), Akash Sumra, Anand Subramanian, Sai Kishore, Athisayaraj Davidson, Ganesh Moorthi, R Sathish, R Jesuraj, Akshay Srinivasan, R Malolan, Ashisth Rajiv Sangankal, U Sushil, S Dinesh, S Abishiek, A Venkatesh, Nidhish S Rajagopal, S Boopalan, Shubham Mehta;
Chepauk Super Gillies: S Karthick, Vijay Shankar (captain), M Ashwin, K Gopinath (vice-captain), Harish Kumar, Ganga Sridhar Raju, Sunny Kumar Singh, Samruddh Bhat, R Alexander, U Sasidev, V Arunkumar, R Vishaal, B Rahul,M Siddharth, B Arun, A Aarif, MK Sivakumar, Manav Parakh, Sai Sudarshan;
LYCA Kovai Kings (yet to name captain): Antony Dhas, Ajith Ram, T Natarajan, Abhinav Mukund, K Vignesh, M Shahrukh Khan, Akkil Srinath, Ravi Kumar Rohith, J Suresh Kumar, R Mithun, Suresh Babu, Sumant Jain, MP Rajesh, Ashwin Venkataraman, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, M Raja, R Sathyanarayan, Muhammed Adnan Khan, S Manigandan,
Siechem Madurai Panthers: D Rohit (captain), KB Arun Karthik, R Karthikeyan, CV Varun, Abhishek Tanwar, Rahil S Shah, T Sargunam, J Kousik, Jaganath Srinivas, Nilesh Subramanian, Tushar Raheja, Kiran Akash, SP Nathan, Shijit Chandrasekaran, Shiva Ramakrishnan, Lokesh Raj, Sabin Somatha Karnayar, MS Promoth, Vikkram Jangid;
Ruby Trichy Warriors: Baba Indrajith (captain), Sonu Yadav, MS Sanjay, DT Chandrasekhar, M Vijay, Ganapathi Chandraseker, Bharath Shankar, Suresh Kumar, Vasanth Saravanan, S Aravind, M Lakshminarayanan, L Vignesh, Mani Bharathy, K Vignesh, Ashwin Crist, Saravana Kumar, Govinda Rajan, RS Thilak, V Aakash;
Dindigul Dragons: R Ashwin (captain), N Jagadeesan (vice-captain), NS Chaturved, Hari Nishanth, Anirudh Sita Ram, M Mohammed, R Rohit, Adithya Arun, M Abhinav, M Silambarasan, N Ramakrishnan, Trilok Nag, Yazh Arun Mozhi, R Vivek, M Sujendran, J Kaushik, Ra Aravind, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, Varun M Totadri;
VB Kanchi Veerans: B Aparajith (captain), S Lokeshwar, Vishal Vaidhya, Aushik Srinivas, Subramania Siva,U Mukilesh, Sunil Sam, R Silambarasan, S Arun, Deeban Lingesh, S Siddharth, Sanjay Yadav, Francis Rokins, R Divakar, Mokit Hariharan, S Chandrasekar, S Ashwath, U Vishal, C Shriram;
iDream Karaikudi Kaalai: Dinesh Karthik, S Anirudha (captain), Yo Mahesh, M Shajahan, R Kavin, L Suryapprakash, V Lakshman, V Aaditya, Kishan Kumar, S Radhakrishnan, Maan K Bafna, R Rajkumar, S Mohan Prasath, Ashwath Mukunthan, S Swaminathan, Ajith Kumar, S Ganesh, R Srinivasan, P Murugesh
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