Ranji Trophy 2025–26: Tamil Nadu opts for split coaching, Venkataramana appointed white-ball coach

Tamil Nadu have restructured their coaching set-up, with former left-arm spinner M. Venkataramana set to replace M. Senthilnathan as head coach for the white-ball leg of the ongoing 2025-26 domestic season. Senthilnathan, however, will continue for the remainder of the Ranji Trophy, with the final two rounds scheduled for January after the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Tamil Nadu currently find themselves in the bottom half of Elite Group A standings, above only Odisha and Nagaland. In the ongoing fifth round, they are battling for first-innings points despite posting 455, thanks largely to Rinku Singh’s brilliant century. They have already suffered outright defeats to Jharkhand and Andhra and conceded a first-innings lead to defending champions Vidarbha in the earlier rounds.

They also came close to failing to defend 512 against Nagaland for first-innings honours. And now, even outright wins in both the remaining round games are unlikely to secure them a knockouts' place. Although the timing of the shake-up, midway through their fifth-round fixture against Uttar Pradesh in Coimbatore, may seem unusual, discussions about such a change had been circulating within the TNCA since their fourth-round loss to Andhra.

The decision was finalized and approved during an emergency meeting in Chennai on Tuesday. Late that night, the TNCA announced via an official press release that they would adopt a split-coaching model for the remainder of the 2025–26 season. The release did not clarify whether Senthilnathan would continue beyond the current Ranji campaign.

Venkataramana, who played one Test for India in 1989 against the West Indies in Kingston, represented Tamil Nadu in 75 first-class matches, taking 247 wickets at an average of 29.63, including 12 five-wicket hauls. He will hope to write a turnaround story for the side under his stewardship for the all-important assignments.

This marks Tamil Nadu’s third coaching change in two years. In 2023–24, internal dissent led to former Mumbai wicketkeeper Sulakshan Kulkarni being removed just a year into his two-year contract, with former India fast bowler L. Balaji taking charge. Ahead of the 2025–26 season, Senthilnathan, a former chief selector, replaced Balaji as head coach.

Earlier this week, Tamil Nadu named Varun Chakravarthy as captain for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, his first leadership role, after three other contenders, M. Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, and Narayan Jagadeesan were overlooked. TN find themselves placed in a challenging group featuring Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Tripura, Jharkhand, and Saurashtra for the T20 competition.