Ravichandran Ashwin, Vijay included in Tamil Nadu's squad for the Ranji Trophy

India’s spin spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin and batsman Murali Vijay has been named in the Tamil Nadu squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy tournament. Vijay was sidelined from the Indian side due to injury, post the Australian series earlier this year. On the other hand, Ashwin has been a vital cog in the Indian Test squad but his name has been missing from the limited overs series since the Champions Trophy in England in this year.

The tournament will commence on October 6. Tamil Nadu will lock horns with Mumbai, Andhra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Baroda and Tripura in Group C. The top two sides from respective groups will take part in the quarter finals, which will start on December 7. The Semi-finals will take place on December 17 while the final will be played from December 29. Tamil Nadu’s first match will be against  Andhra Pradesh in Chennai.

Tamil Nadu set for another challenging season

“We had three options, Abhinav, Vijay Shankar and Indrajith. With Vijay not available, it’s between Abhinav and Indrajith. Abhinav’s experience will come in handy and he will mostly retain the job,’’ a source told Indian Express. The biggest problem is to fix a role and slot for Washington Sundar. He played five games last year as an opener and was not part of the semifinal line-up that lost to Mumbai.

“Washington is an amazing talent. When Abhinav and Vijay open, he has to bat down the order. We see him as a batting all-rounder with Vijay Shankar. It’s up to the team management to decide on a slot depending on the situation and conditions,’’ added the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Squad: Abhinav Mukund (c), Baba Indrajith (VC), Murali Vijay, M. Kaushik Gandhi, N. Jagadeesan (WK). Baba Aparajith, M. S. Washington Sundar, Rahil S. Shah, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, V Lakshman, Rohith Ramkumar, Malolan Rangarajan.