Ranji Trophy 2021-22: Vijay Shankar to lead Tamil Nadu, Washington Sundar named deputy

Indian all-rounder Vijay Shankar will lead Tamil Nadu during Ranji Trophy 2021-22, with spinner Washington Sundar as his deputy. The coveted domestic tournament will commence on January 13 after the previous edition could not be held in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu squad is a healthy mix of youth and experience, although notable absentees include wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and pacer T Natarajan. Tamil Nadu have not crossed the group stages of the competition since the 2016-17 season, when they qualified for the semifinals.

Tamil Nadu, who are placed in Elite Group D, will begin their campaign against Jammu and Kashmir from January 13 to 16, followed by fixtures against Railways (January 20 to 23), Goa (January 27 to 30), Jharkhand (February 3 to 6) and Saurashtra (February 10 to 13).

All the teams, divided into six groups, will be playing their games in six cities – Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum and Chennai, with the final set to be played on March 16 to 20. Kolkata will host the knockouts, scheduled from February 20, whereas the quarter-finals will be played from February 28 to March 3, followed by the semi-finals from March 8 to 12.

Tamil Nadu squad for Ranji Trophy 2021-22

Vijay Shankar (Captain), M.S. Washington Sundar (Vice-Captain), B. Indrajith, Baba Aparajith, N. Jagadeesan, M. Shahrukh Khan, B. Sai Sudharsan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, L. Suryapprakash, M. Kaushik Gandhi, V. Ganga Sridhar Raju, Sandeep Warrier, M. Mohammed, R. Silambarasan, P. Saravana Kumar, A. Aswin Crist, L. Vignesh, R. Sai Kishore, M. Siddharth, R. Kavin

Ranji Trophy 2021-22 Groups

There are a total of six groups, including five Elite ones, which have six teams each, and one plate group comprising eight teams. Group C is being labelled as the group of death, with Mumbai, Karnataka and Delhi slotted in together alongside Hyderabad, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.

Elite A: Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal, Madhya Pradesh, Services and Assam (in Mumbai)

Elite B: Bengal, Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Kerala, Haryana and Tripura(in Bangalore)

Elite C: Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand (in Kolkata)

Elite D: Saurashtra, Tamil Nadu, Railways, J & K, Jharkhand and Goa (in Ahmedabad)

Elite E: Andhra, Uttar Pradesh, Baroda, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Pondicherry (in Trivandrum)

Plate Group: Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal (in Chennai)