Vijay Hazare 2018: Vijay Shankar to lead Tamil Nadu squad bereft of international stars Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin and Murali Vijay

Chennai: All-rounder Vijay Shankar will lead Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite Group’C’ League matches to be held here from 19 September.

The team will be missing the services of experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik and Test opener Murali Vijay as they will be away on national duty (Asia Cup) and turning out for Essex in the county circuit respectively.

Also, India Test off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has not been included in the squad.

The team was announced on Tuesday by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s selection committee.

Seamer S Sharun Kumar is a new face and was included in the squad after impressive performances in the recent VAP Trophy for teams in the TNCA League.

A TNCA release said the other fast bowlers in the 15-member team are K Vignesh, T Natarajan and M Mohammad.

India Test discard Abhinav Mukund forms part of an experienced batting unit that also includes Baba Aparajith, who has recovered from a calf injury during the Duleep Trophy, Baba Indrajith, Kaushik Gandhi and wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan.

Mystery spinner C V Arun, who did well during the recent TNPL, has found a place in the state team and will be part of an attack that will include Rahil Shah and R Sai Kishore.

Tamil Nadu opens its campaign with a match against Gujarat on 20 September.

The other teams in the group are: Assam, Haryana, Jharkhand, Services, Tripura, Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Team Rajasthan.

Squad: Vijay Shankar (captain), Abhinav Mukund, Baba Indrajith, Baba Aparajith, M Kaushik Gandhi, B Anirudh, N Jagadeesan (WK), M Shahrukh Khan, Rahil Shah, Sai Kishore, C V Varun, M Mohammed, K Vignesh, T Natarajan and Sharun Kumar.