Tamil Nadu (TN) has to win its last two Ranji trophy group matches to be in the contention for the knockouts. As it faces Madhya Pradesh here on Friday, all eyes will be on skipper Abhinav Mukund and his strategies.
TN batted well in the four games it played — it has posted a minimum of 350 runs in all but one innings versus Andhra when the latter secured the first innings lead.
Ranji Trophy: Delhi has edge against Maharashtra
The bowlers helped TN secure first innings lead versus Mumbai and Tripura. Except, it couldn't restrict Odisha especially after the batsmen had piled on the runs — 530.
Mukund concurred. "Frankly, we've done well yet been unfortunate," he said on the eve of the match.
Following the Odisha fixture, changes have been made; the selectors have replaced wicketkeeper R. Rohith with S. Lokeshwar, and medium pacer L. Vignesh with M. Mohammed. Left-arm spinner Rahil Shah has been dropped and J. Kousik included.
Dinesh Karthik, recovering from an injury, will join the team for the last group match versus Baroda.
Despite impediments, Mukund is confident. "With all the changes, I still believe I have a team that is capable of winning. Lokeshwar has done well in the U-23 circuit. In fact, he was our first-choice 'keeper. It's just that he was able to join the squad only now," he said.
There are no injury concerns in any of the camps.
Squads
Tamil Nadu: Abhinav Mukund (captain), B Indrajith, M Kaushik Gandhi, B Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, N Jagadeesan (WK), M S Washington Sundar, R Sai Kishore, K Vignesh, M Mohammed, V Yomahesh, J Kousik, S Lokeshwar (WK), V Ganga Sridhar Raju, Malolan Rangarajan and V. Lakshman
Madhya Pradesh: Devendra Bundela (captain), Harpreet Singh, Ankit Sharma, Avesh Khan, Ankit Dane, Puneet Datey, Mihir Hirwani, Saransh Jain, Naman Ojha (WK), Ishwar Pandey, Rajat Patidar, Chandrakant Sakure, Shubham Sharma, Aditya Shrivastava, Anshul Tripathi, Waseem Ahmed
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