Tamil Nadu Premier League 2017 - All you need to know

After a very successful inaugural edition, the Tamil Nadu Premier League is all set to get underway for the second edition. The tournament is expected to be a bigger and a better tournament than its previous instalment. This year, the teams have bolstered their lineups with new players. Thus, in essence, it will be a bigger platform for the youngsters to show their mettle at the grand stage.

Last year, TUTI Patriots and Chepauk Super Gillies had locked horns in the finals. TUTI Patriots had thoroughly outplayed the opposition in the finals to be crowned as the champions. Another key feature of this edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League is the inclusion of more overseas faces in the team management and the support staff. Much against all expectations, no outstation players will be a part of the tournament this year.

Venues

The 2017 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League will be played across three venues in the state of Tamil Nadu. Indian Cement Company Ground in Tirunelveli, NPR College Ground in Dindigul, and the MA Chidambaran Stadium in Chennai will be the three venues in the tournament this year. The final will be played at Chennai.

Teams

TUTI Patriots

The defending champions TUTI Patriots have a star studded lineup this year. They have the experience of Dinesh Karthik and Abhinav Mukund leading them from the front. L Balaji takes up the senior role in the bowling department. Among the young guns, Aswin Crist will be the bowler to watch out for.

Squad: Maaruthi Raghav, V Athisayaraj Davidson, Dinesh Karthik, Washington Sundar, Aswin Crist, Abhinav Mukund, Aushik Srinivas, Kaushik Gandhi, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Subramanian Anand, Akash Sumra, R Sathyanarayan, Umashankar Sushil, M Ganesh Moorthi, R Vishaal, Siddarth Ahuja, V Lakshman, SP Nathan, G Nicul Anand.

Chepauk Super Gillies

Veteran domestic star Rajagopal Sathish would be hoping to serve the Chepauk Super Gillies in the capacity of the senior player. They were the runner up in the previous edition of the tournament. They would hope to go the distance this time around. S Radhakrishnan is being seen as the dark horse in the team.

Squad: Rajagopal Sathish, Yo Mahesh, Thalaivan Sargunam, Antony Dhas, Gopinath, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Uthirasamy Sasidev, Joel Joseph, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, R Alexander, Sathiamoorty Saravanan, Baskaran Rahul, Ashwath Mukumthan, S Karthik, Aditya Barooah, Jothimani Gowjith Subhash, Arun Kumar, Rangaraj Suthesh, S Radhakrishnan.

Lyca Kovai Kings

Vijay Shankar had a decent time in the Indian Premier League this year for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He will be aiding the experience to this Lyca Kovai Kings side. Murali Vijay, the senior player, might miss out on the tournament to some extent due to his recent injury.

Squad: M Siddharth, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Manish Ravi, K Deeban Lingesh, Murali Vijay, JS Mohammad, M Mohammed, L Suryaprakash, Vijay Shankar, MK Sivakumar, Ravi Kumar Rohith, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, B Anirudh Sita Ram, S Ajith Ram, S Harish Kumar, Akshay Srinivasan, B Arun, S Tarun Srinivas, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Ranjan Paul.

Madurai Super Kings

Madurai Super Kings has a very exciting lineup going into the tournament. The side boasts of many unheralded faces which make them an exciting team to look out for.

Squad: Sivagnanan Senthilnathan, PS Sivaramakrishnan, K Mani Bharathi, Murugan Ganesh, R Ajith, M Poiyamozhi, Arun Karthik, Suresh Kumar, P Francis Rokins, DT Chandrasekar, M Raja, Shijit Chandran, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh, Muruganantham, Palani Amarnath, Edward Kennedy, Shahrukh Khan, R Karthikeyan, D Prashanth Prabhu.

Dindigul Dragons

When it comes to the Dindigul Dragons, all eyes would be on the spin duo of the lineup. The two Ashwins – Murugan Ashwin and Ravichandran Ashwin will be playing in tandem. They also have couple of exciting youngsters in N Jagadeesan and T Natarajan.

Squad: S Kishan Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, T Natarajan, MS Sanjay, N Jagadeesan, Ganga Sridhar Raju, Subramania Siva, Sunny Kumar Singh, K Mukunth, Wilkins Victor, Ashwin Venkataraman, ME Yazh Arun Mozhi, S Abishiek, R Vivek, Adithya Arun, M Silambarasan, S Dinesh.

VB Thiruvallur Veerans

The Veerans have a very solid support staff and that is backed up by a good core team. Baba Aparajith will try to redefine his glory in the tournament.

Squad: Vignesh, R Rajan, RD Ashwin Kumar, Hari Nishanth, Baba Aparajith, Abhishek Tamrakar , Rahil Shah, R Kavin, NS Chaturved, Malolan Rangarajan, Ramalingam Rohit, Jaganath Sinivas, Sanjay Yadav, S Arun, Lakshmi Narayanan, Silambarasan, U Mukilesh, Samuel, Anand Rajan, S Siddharth.

Karaikudi Kaalai

With no big international names to boast about, the Karaikudi Kaalai could be the silent performers of the team. The players have nothing to lose but everything to gain from the tournament.

Squad: Varun Chakravathi, Shikhar Hukku, Srikkanth Anirudha, Aashish Srikrishnan, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, S Badrinath, Sunil Sam, Suresh Babu, S Lokeshwar, Chandrasekar Ganapathy, Shoaib Md Khan, K Vishal Vaidhya, R Sonu Yadav, R Rajkumar, S Mohan Prasath, M Vijay Kumar, Rajhamany Srinivasan, M Shajahan, Trilok Nag.

Ruby Trichy Warriors

Ruby Trichy Warriors is the franchise with the new name this season. They have a bunch of exciting players on the roster who would be keen to make an impact and putforth their cases for bigger endeavours.

Squad: Kannan Vignesh, N Prashid Akash, M Monokaran, RS Mokit Hariharan, J Jabez Moses, Baba Indrajith, Jagatheesan Kousik, Rajamani Jesuraj, Bharath Shankar, Alagh Prathiban, Krishna Varun Kumar, Murthy Prabhu, Jagannathan Kaushik, Adithya Ganesh, Nilesh Subramanian, Akkil Srinaath, Anthony Mannays, B Aditya, Adhithya Giridhar.

Schedule

Match 1, July 22 – TUTI Patriots vs Dindigul Dragons at Chennai.

Match 2 July 23 – Lyca Kovai Kings vs Karaikudi Kaalai at Tirunelveli.

Match 3, July 24 – Chepauk Super Gillies vs VB Thiruvallur Veerans at Tirunelveli.

Match 4, July 25 – Madurai Super Giant vs Dindigul Dragons at Dindigul.

Match 5, July 26 – Ruby Trichy Warriors vs TUTI Patriots at Dindigul.

Match 6, July 27 – Madurai Super Giant vs Karaikudi Kaalai at Tirunelveli.

Match 7, July 28 – Dindigul Dragons vs VB Thiruvallur Veerans at Tirunelveli.

Match 8, July 29 – Chepauk Super Gillies vs Lyca Kovai Kings at Chennai.

Match 9, July 30 – Karaikudi Kaalai vs TUTI Patriots at Tirunelveli.

Match 10, July 30 – VB Thiruvallur Veerans vs Ruby Trichy Warriors at Tirunelveli.

Match 11, July 31 – Lyca Kovai Kings vs Dindigul Dragons at Dindigul.

Match 12, August 1 – Chepauk Super Gillies vs TUTI Patriots at Tirunelveli.

Match 13, August 2 – Karaikudi Kaalai vs VB Thiruvallur Veerans at Dindigul.

Match 14, August 2 – Ruby Trichy Warriors vs Madurai Super Giant at Dindigul.

Match 15, August 3 – TUTI Patriots vs Lyca Kovai Kings at Tirunelveli.

Match 16, August 4 – Karaikudi Kaalai vs Chepauk Super Gillies at Chennai.

Match 17, August 5 – Dindigul Dragons vs Ruby Trichy Warriors at Tirunelveli.

Match 18, August 5 – VB Thiruvallur Veerans vs TUTI Patriots at Tirunelveli.

Match 19, August 6 – Madurai Super Giant vs Chepauk Super Gillies at Chennai.

Match 20, August 7 – Dindigul Dragons vs Karaikudi Kaalai at Tirunelveli.

Match 21, August 8 – Madurai Super Giant vs VB Thiruvallur Veerans at Tirunelveli.

Match 22, August 9 – Chepauk Super Gillies vs Ruby Trichy Warriors at Dindigul.

Match 23, August 10 – Lyca Kovai Kings vs Madurai Super Giant at Dindigul.

Match 24, August 11 – Karaikudi Kaalai vs Ruby Trichy Warriors at Dindigul.

Match 25, August 12 – VB Thiruvallur Veerans vs Lyca Kovai Kings at Chennai.

Match 26, August 13 – TUTI Patriots vs Madurai Super Giant at Dindigul.

Match 27, August 13 – Dindigul Dragons vs Chepauk Super Gillies at Dindigul.

Match 28, August 14 – Ruby Trichy Warriors vs Lyca Kovai Kings at Chennai.

Qualifier 1, August 15 – At Chennai.

Eliminator, August 16 – At Dindigul.

Qualifier 2, August 18 – At Tirunelveli

Final, August 20 – At Chennai.