Yo Mahesh dropped from TN side for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Pace bowling all-rounder Yo Mahesh, who had an impressive Ranji season for Tamil Nadu, is a surprising omission from the State side for the inter-State South Zone Twenty20 tournament, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, to be held at Vijayawada from January 8.

Yo Mahesh with his hard-hitting batting and lively seam bowling has been a great fit for T20 cricket over the years. He took part in the practice games ahead of selection and has no injury concerns yet there is no place for him or the feisty pace multi-dimensional cricketer J. Kousik.

Who will lead?

Vijay Shankar will lead the side while Baba Aparajith will be his deputy. Baba Indrajith, nursing an injured shoulder, is not a part of the squad. Pacemen Aswin Crist and T. Natarajan were not considered since they had not fully recovered from injuries, as reported by Sportstar.

Missing from the list is veteran batsman R. Sathish – A Twenty20 regular – who now has taken up a coaching role with the State under-16 team. Attacking opening batsman K. Bharat Shankar finds a place, so does paceman Rohit Ramalingam. R. Sanjay Yadav is the left-arm spinning all-rounder.

Paceman W. Antony Dhas, who has also been bludgeoning the ball to the different corners of the ground and got several IPL franchises interested in him, is a part of the team.

The squad includes international cricketer Dinesh Karthik, who was part of the national ODI team in the recent series against Sri Lanka and young all-rounder M S Washington Sundar. Tamil Nadu plays its first match against Andhra Pradesh at Vishakhapatnam.

Squad: Vijay Shankar (captain), B Aparajith (vice-captain), K Bharath Shankar, M S Washington Sundar, Abhinav Mukund, K Dinesh Karthik (WK), N Jagadeesan (WK), Rahil S Shah, R Sai Kishore, M Mohammed, K Vignesh, R Sanjay Yadav, S Aniruda, W Antony Dhas, Rohit Ramalingam and M Ashwin.

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