India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, retained by Dindigul Dragons for the third season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League, will be available to lead the team and play a few matches before embarking on national duty, the team’s managing director H.R. Srinivasan said.
According to sources, Ashwin will play the first four matches in the league.
Speaking on the sidelines of the TNPL draft, Srinivasan lauded Ashwin’s involvement in the draft and his attitude. “Ashwin is an asset for our team. Even though he will be available for a few games only, we can count on his experience in leading the team. He is here in person to pick the team. So far, we are happy and we are balanced,” he said.
READ: TNPL player draft: 772 players in the fray
In the absence of Ashwin, wicketkeeper N. Jagadeesan will lead the team.
Tuti Patriots’ Washington Sundar said he was happy with the way the draft panned out for his team. “We wanted to pick Antony Dhas but we couldn’t. We are happy picking Kaushik Gandhi, Sai Kishore and R. Sathish,” he said.
The CEO of Madurai Panthers, Pooja said coming from a cricket enthusiastic family has made the job of strategising easy. “We are well prepared. We wanted to go for some India players but looking at their availability we have analysed and got the others,” she said.
Keen to turn around the fortunes of Madurai, Pooja said the team would hope to break its barren run in the league. Arun Karthik will captain the franchise in the season.
The players picked in the draft will be in the team for a period of two years but teams are free to release and pick new players at the end of the third season.
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