Vijay Shankar to make TNPL debut for Chepauk, Karthik to play for Karaikudi

Washington Sundar to don Tuti Patriots jersey while Murali Vijay moves to Ruby Trichy Warriors.

Vijay Shankar will play for reigning champion Chepauk Super Gillies in this year's TNPL.

India international Vijay Shankar will don Chepauk Super Gillies’ colours after he was drafted by the reigning champion in the player draft for the third edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League that was held at a city hotel here on Thursday.

Vijay Shankar had missed the previous edition of the league owing to an injury. Interestingly, his debut would also be delayed as he will be on national duty in England. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder is expected to be available for the business end of the tournament.

 

Washington Sundar has been bought back by Tuti Patriots while Dinesh Karthik will ply his trade for iDream Karaikudi Kaalai. The ’keeper-batsman had previously played for Tuti Patriots.

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Both Karthik and Sundar will also miss a part of the league as the duo figure in the India squad for the limited-overs leg of the England tour which concludes on July 17. In the scenario, the duo will only miss the first week of action provided they aren't included in the Indian squad for the subsequent Test series.

In other interesting draftings, Rajagopal Sathish, who led Chepauk Super Gillies to success last season, was bought by Tuti Patriots while Test openers Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund were picked up by Ruby Trichy Warriors and Lyca Kovai Kings respectively.

Among other prominent players, W. Antony Dhas will play for Lyca Kovai Kings, S. Lokeshwar for VB Kanchi Veerans while Kaushik Gandhi stays with Tuti Patriots.

T. Natarajan, who made heads turn with his performances in the league and subsequently got an IPL nod, moves to Lyca Kovai Kings while S. Anirudha stays with iDream Karaikudi Kaalai. Leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin moves to Chepauk Super Gillies while R. Sai Kishore will don the Tuti Patriots jersey. Sai Kishore's former teammate V Yo Mahesh will play for iDream Karaikudi Kaalai.

Siechem Madurai Panthers made some interesting picks in Rahil S Shah, explosive opener Thalaivan Sargunam while Dindigul Dragons roped in N.S. Chaturved and B. Aniruidh Sita Ram.

Earlier, each of the eight teams had retained three players ahead of the draft. A total of 772 players had registered for the draft.

Briefing franchise officials earlier, N. Srinivasan, Executive Committee member, TNCA, said it was necessary to take a long-term view on the league. “It is very important that we have faith in the TNPL, that we will do everything possible to enhance the quality and the substance of the league. We will not spare any effort in this regard,” he said.

Squads

Tuti Patriots  - Washington Sundar, Kaushik Gandhi, Sai Kishor R., R. Sathish, Athisayaraj Davidson V., Akshay Srinivasan, Malolan Rangarajan, Ashith Rajiv, U. Sushil, Dinesh S., Abishiek S., Venkatesh A., Nidish S., R. Jesuraj, S. Boopalan, S. Shubham Mehta.  Retained: Anand Subramanian, Akash Sumra and Ganesh Moorthy.

Chepauk Super Gillies  - Vijay Shankar, Gopinath K.H., M. Ashwin, Harish Kumar S., Ganga Sridhar Raju, Sunny Kumar Singh, Samruddh Bhat, Arun Kumar V., Vishaal R., Rahul B., Siddharth M., Arun B., Aarif A., M.K. Sivakumar, Manav Parakh, B. Sai Sudharsan.  Retained:  S. Karthik, U. Sasidev and R.K. Alexander.

Lyca Kovai Kings  - Anthony Das, Natarajan T., Abhinav Mukund, K. Vignesh, Shahrukh Khan M., Akkil Srinaath, Suresh Kumar J., Mithun R., Suresh Babu, Sumant Jain, Rajesh M.P., Ashwin Venkataraman, M. Raja, R. Sathyanarayan, Mohammed Adnan Khan, S. Manikandan. Retained:  Rohith Ravikumar, Pradosh Ranjan Paul and S Ajith Ram.

Siechem Madurai Panthers  - Varun C.V., Abhishek Tanwar, Rahil Shah, Thalaivan Sargunam X., Kousik J., Jagannath R.S., Nilesh S., Rohit D., S.P. Nathan, Tushar Raheja, Kiran Akash L., Lokesh Raj T.D., S.S. Karnavar, Vikkram Jangid, M.S. Promoth, P.S. Shivaramakrishnan. Retained:  K.B. Arun Karthik, Shijit Chandran and R. Karthikeyan.

Trichy Warriors  - Sonu Yadav, Sanjay M.S., Murali Vijay, C. Ganapathi, Suresh Kumar S., Vasanth Saravanan, Aravind S., Lakshminarayanan M., Vignesh L., Chandrasekar D.T., Aswin Crist A., Mani Bharathy K., Saravana Kumar P., A.S. Govinda Raajan, R.S. Thillak, V. Aakash. Retained:  B. Indrajith, Bharath Shankar and K. Vignesh.

VB Kanchi Veerans  - Lokeshwar S., Vishal Vaidhya. K. Aushik Srinivas R., Subramania Siva, Mukilesh U., Sunil Sam, S. Arun, Deeban Lingesh K., Francis Rokins P., Siddharth S., Divakar R., Mokit Hariharan, S. Chandrasekhar, S. Ashwath, U. Vishal, Shriram C.  Retained:  Baba Aparajith.

Dindigul Dragons  - Chaturved N.S., Hari Nishaanth C., Anirudh Sita Ram B., Mohammed M., Rohit R., Adithya Arun, Abhinav M, Silambarasan, Trilok Nag, Yazh Arun Mozhi, Sujendran M, Kaushik J, N Ramakrishnan, Ra Aravind, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, Varun M Totatri. Retained:  R Ashwin, N. Jagadeesan and R. Vivek.

IDream Karaikudi Kaalai  - Dinesh Karthik, Aniruda.S, V. Yo Mahesh, R Kavin, L. Suryap Prakash, Lakshman, Aaditya.V, Kishan Kumar S, Radhakrishnan, Maan K Bafna, Ashwath Mukunthan, Swaminathan S., Ajith Kumar T., S. Ganesh, R. Srinivasan, P. Murugesh. Retained:  R Rajkumar, M Shajahan and S. Mohan Prasath.