Vijay Shankar is captain; Yo Mahesh dropped

Yo Mahesh, who has also been an effective Twenty20 cricketer over the years with his lively seam bowling and hard-hitting batting, is a surprising omission from the Tamil Nadu side for the inter-State South Zone Twenty20 tournament to be held at Vijayawada from January 8.

Yo Mahesh took part in the practise games ahead of selection and has no injury concerns.

Pace bowling all-rounder V. Yo Mahesh, who impressed for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, is a surprising omission from the State side for the inter-State South Zone Twenty20 tournament to be held at Vijayawada from January 8.

Yo Mahesh, who has also been an effective Twenty20 cricketer over the years with his lively seam bowling and hard-hitting batting, took part in the practise games ahead of selection and has no injury concerns.

There is no place for the feisty pace multi-dimensional cricketer J. Kousik either.

Vijay Shankar will lead the side while Baba Aparajith will be his deputy. The side includes international cricketers Dinesh Karthik, Abhinav Mukund and M.S. Washington Sundar.

Baba Indrajith, nursing an injured shoulder, is not a part of the squad. Pacemen Aswin Crist and T. Natarajan were not considered since they had not fully recovered from injuries.   

Missing from the list is veteran batsman R. Sathish – a Twenty20 regular - who now has taken up a coaching role with the State under-16 team.

Attacking opening batsman K. Bharat Shankar finds a place, so does paceman Rohit Ramalingam. R. Sanjay Yadav is the left-arm spinning all-rounder.  

Paceman W. Antony Dhas, who has also been bludgeoning the ball to the different corners of the ground and got several IPL franchises interested in him, is a part of the team.