CHENNAI: With the two new IPL teams eyeing players ahead of the 2022 season and the mega auctions not too far away, the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s — which kicks off on Thursday — offers an opportunity for the players to catch the franchises’ eye. Defending champions Tamil Nadu start their campaign by taking on Maharashtra in Lucknow on Thursday. TN head into the contest with an edge as they have a strong side with players who have featured in a lot of T20 cricket in recent times. Be it the Tamil Nadu Premier League in July-August or being part of IPL franchises in the UAE, a majority of TN players have been in the T20 mode for the last few months.
N Jagadeesan and C Hari Nishaanth are likely to open the proceedings with B Aparajith, while young gun B Sai Sudarshan, Vijay Shankar and M Shahrukh Khan form the middle-order. Allrounders such as J Kousik, Saravana Kumar, Vivek Raj and Sanjay Yadav could be handy when it comes to striking lusty blows in the final overs. “We possess a good all-round unit. It all boils down to how we execute our plans on the given day,” Vijay Shankar told TOI on the eve of the encounter. Shankar replaced the injured Dinesh Karthik as the skipper ahead of the tournament. T Natarajan is expected to spearhead the bowling attack. The left-arm pacer returns to competitive cricket after recovering from a knee injury which saw him go under the knife and be out of action for the last 6 months. TN has variety when it comes to bowling – be it pace or in spin.
Maharashtra, on the other hand, will bank on their in-form skipper Ruturaj Gaekwad to do the bulk of the scoring. Ruturaj has been in prime form at the recently-concluded IPL season where he played a big part — 635 runs in 16 outings — in Chennai Super Kings winning their fourth crown. Another prominent name in the Maharashtra ranks is Kedar Jadhav. As far as their bowling goes, Maharashtra has medium pacer Pradeep Dadhe, left-armer Mukesh Choudhary and left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav in their ranks.
Despite TN having an upper hand ahead of the encounter, Shankar made it clear that Maharashtra will not be taken lightly. “There are no favourites when it comes to a Twenty20 clash. Situations can change quickly and Maharashtra is a good solid side which can trouble any team in the tournament,” Shankar said.
N Jagadeesan and C Hari Nishaanth are likely to open the proceedings with B Aparajith, while young gun B Sai Sudarshan, Vijay Shankar and M Shahrukh Khan form the middle-order. Allrounders such as J Kousik, Saravana Kumar, Vivek Raj and Sanjay Yadav could be handy when it comes to striking lusty blows in the final overs. “We possess a good all-round unit. It all boils down to how we execute our plans on the given day,” Vijay Shankar told TOI on the eve of the encounter. Shankar replaced the injured Dinesh Karthik as the skipper ahead of the tournament. T Natarajan is expected to spearhead the bowling attack. The left-arm pacer returns to competitive cricket after recovering from a knee injury which saw him go under the knife and be out of action for the last 6 months. TN has variety when it comes to bowling – be it pace or in spin.
Maharashtra, on the other hand, will bank on their in-form skipper Ruturaj Gaekwad to do the bulk of the scoring. Ruturaj has been in prime form at the recently-concluded IPL season where he played a big part — 635 runs in 16 outings — in Chennai Super Kings winning their fourth crown. Another prominent name in the Maharashtra ranks is Kedar Jadhav. As far as their bowling goes, Maharashtra has medium pacer Pradeep Dadhe, left-armer Mukesh Choudhary and left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav in their ranks.
Despite TN having an upper hand ahead of the encounter, Shankar made it clear that Maharashtra will not be taken lightly. “There are no favourites when it comes to a Twenty20 clash. Situations can change quickly and Maharashtra is a good solid side which can trouble any team in the tournament,” Shankar said.