R. ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, FEB 20
India all-rounder Vijay Shankar was snapped up by Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) team Salem Spartans in the draft for season-5 held here on Thursday.
The Spartans, formerly Tuti Patriots, also picked up leggie Murugan Ashwin and pacer G Periyasamy, the top wicket-taker in season-IV.
The Spartans made full use of their first position in the order of the draft to pick a strong squad.
The team picked six players who represented last year’s winners, Chepauk Super Gillies.
On its part, the Super Gillies roped in Season 4’s top run-getter wicket keeper batsman Narayan Jagadeesan.
Spartan’s stars Washington Sundar and Shankar expressed confidence of a better show and improve upon the fifth-placed finish last year.
They are likely to play the full season when the tournament kicks off on June 10.
“It is a great boost to have Vijay Shankar in the side. It is a new setup and we are looking to do better this year,” said Sundar, who was among the three players retained by the franchise.
“In the last three years I have played for different teams every year but I have only played 3 games of TNPL.
I am looking forward to play the full season and help the team win matches and the tournament as well,” Vijay Shankar said.
Cricketers from the districts were a big draw in the draft that had a pool of 633 players with 67 of the 132 chosen by the eight franchises coming from the districts, an official release from TNPL said.
Siechem Madurai Panthers picked the highest number of players from the districts 11, followed by Salem and Chepauk, who picked nine players each.
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association president Rupa Gurunath, who addressed the gathering, revealed the franchises can add two outstation players for which a separate draft will be held in May.
“The draft for outstation players will be held after the IPL,” she said.
Among the other prominent teams India stars, Murali Vijay will turn out for Ruby Trichy Warriors having been retained by the team while ace offie Ravichandran Ashwin will be playing for Dindigul Dragons to be coached by former Test player S Badrinath.
Dinesh Karthik will be the star attraction for iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans.
TNPL 2020 Squads
Salem Spartans (20 players)
Retained players: Washington Sundar, Akshay Srinivasan, M Ganesh Moorthi
Capped players: Vijay Shankar, Ganeshan Periyasamy, Murugan Ashwin, KH Gopinath, Daryl Ferrario, Umashankar Sushil, MK Sivakumar
Uncapped players: B Pranesh, TD Lokesh Raj, Akkil Srinath, M Suganesh, S Abishiek, S Boopalan, Prashanth Prabhu, M Vijay Kumar, T Rajkumar, Shubham Mehta
Head coach: S Suresh
Chepauk Super Gillies (20)
Retained players: Kaushik Gandhi, Ramadoss Alexandar, Uthirasamy Sasidev
Capped players: N Jagadeesan, Rajagopal Sathish, M Sidharth, RS Jaganath Sinivas, V Arun Kumar
Uncapped players: D Rahul, S Harish Kumar, S Sujay, H Prashid Akash, B Arun, R Ram Aravind, B Rahul, B Sai Prakash, S Vijayakumar, V Santhana Sekar, R Ajith Kumar, Vikram Jangid
Head coach: Hemang Badani
Lyca Kovai Kings (19)
Retained players: M Sharukh Khan, Thangarasu Natarajan, S Ajith Ram
Capped players: Abhishek Tanwar, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, V Ganga Sridhar Raju
Uncapped players: P Shijith Chandran, Ashwin Venkataraman, R Kavin, U Mukilesh, MP Rajesh, J Suresh Kumar, GR Manish, N Selva Kumaran, C Atheeq-ur Rahman, B Sai Sudharsan, J Gowjith Subash, G Aravindh, Nishanth Kumar Alwar
Head coach: Sriram Somayaaula
Siechem Madurai Panthers (19)
Retained players: KB Arun Kaarthick, Varun Chakravarthy, Kiran Akash
Capped players: Jagadeesan Kousik, NS Chaturved, Ramalingam Rohit, B Anirudh Sitaram Aushik Srinivas
Uncapped players: Ramachandran Mithun, M Shahjahan, Aditya Varadarajan, V Gowtham, P Praveen Kumar, Raghupathy Silambarasan, P Hemcharan, DT Chandrasekar, K Deeban Lingesh, PS Nirmal Kumar, S Ganesh
Head coach: TBC
Ruby Trichy Warriors (20)
Retained players: Murali Vijay, Sai Kishore, Sonu Yadav
Capped players: Aniruda Srikkanth, Rahil Shah, Mukund Karunakaran
Uncapped players: P Saravana Kumar, Nidhish Rajagopal, Anthony Das, Aditya Ganesh, Sumant Jain, Akash Sumra, M Poiyamozhi, Muhammed Adnan Khan, R Ganesh, VP Amith Sathvik, Yazh Arun Mozhi, S Santhosh Shiv, G Hemanth Kumar, Karthik Shanmugham
Head coach: Ajay Kudua
VB Kanchi Veerans (18)
Retained players: Baba Aparajith, Sanjay Yadav, NS Harish
Capped players: Baba Indrajith, Athiyasaraj Davidson, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, L Surya Prakash
Uncapped players: Trilok Nath, Arjun Murthy, M Abhinav, S Sharun Kumar, CH Jitendra Kumar, T Ajith Kumar, S Senthil Nathan, P Vidyuth, R Jayachandran, V Rajinikanth, Ashwath Mukunthan
Head coach: M Shanmugham
Dindigul Dragons (20)
Retained players: Ravichandran Ashwin, Munnusamy Silambarasan, Rajendran Vivek
Capped players: C Hari Nishanth, Yo Mahesh, L Vignesh, MS Sanjay, R Srinivasan
Uncapped players: Vishal Vaidhya, C Mani Bharathy, Rangaraj Sutheesh, RS Mokit Hariharan, S Lokeshwar, Adithya Arun, S Arun , S Swaminathan, V Lakshman, C Ashwin, Siva Murugan, Advaith Sharma
Head coach: S Badrinath
iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans (20)
Retained players: Dinesh Karthik, R Rajkumar, Maan K Bafna
Capped players: M Mohammed, Aswin Crist, Abhinav Mukund
Uncapped player: S Dinesh, S Mohan Prasath, P Francis Rokins, S Aravind, Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, A Karuppusamy, S Manikandan, S Sidharth, C Sriram, Tushar Raheja, Mohit Panghal, Siddarth Ahhuja, M Rooban Raj, Abhinav Vishnu
Head coach: R Prasanna
