India’s new pace sensation T Natarajan has been named in the 20-member Tamil Nadu squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament on Wednesday (February 3) with the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association awaiting BCCI’s nod for the left-arm pacer.
Tamil Nadu has also named the experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who led the state to a memorable Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Trophy last month, as captain while all-rounder Baba Aparajith will be his deputy for the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Natarajan is not part of the India squad for the first two Tests of the upcoming four-match Test series against England, and therefore, he was selected for the Vijay Hazare Trophy but his participation hasn’t yet cleared by the BCCI. However, the BCCI is also yet to announce the dates for the tournament.
Tamil Nadu chief selector S Vasudevan told PTI: “Yes, we have selected Natarajan but the BCCI has to give the go-ahead for him to play in the tournament as they want to keep him fresh for the ODIs and T20s against England.”
Meanwhile, the medium-pacer K Vignesh, who missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after being diagnosed with COVID-19, has returned to the Tamil Nadu squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy.
However, Tamil Nadu will not have the services of all-rounder Vijay Shankar, Sandeep Warrier, and Jagannath Srinivas – all played in the team’s recent victorious Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 campaign.
While Shankar is yet to fully recover from an injury, Warrier joined the India team in Chennai as a net bowler for the first two Tests against England starting February 5 (Friday).
Vasudevan signed off by saying, “It is good that Vignesh is back. He did very well last season. Vijay Shankar has not recovered fully and hence has not been included.”
Tamil Nadu Squad:
Dinesh Karthik (Captain), B Aparajith (Vice-Captain), B Indrajith, KB Arun Karthick, C Hari Nishaanth, M Shahrukh Khan, N Jagadeesan, L Suryapprakash, M Kaushik Gandhi, J Kousik, M Ashwin, R Sai Kishore, M Siddharth, R Sonu Yadav, K Vignesh, T Natarajan, A Aswin Crist, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, G Periyasamy and M Mohammed.
(With PTI Inputs)
