Tamil Nadu will look to carry forward the momentum of their hard-fought win over Railways when they take on Chandigarh at the Sector 16 cricket stadium in a Group D round match of the Ranji Trophy.
Chandigarh, with just one point from three games, will be under severe pressure. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu with a cushion of 14 points will go for an outright win. They also will take confidence from the wins against hosts in 2025 and 2024.
"We have a good team that ticks all the boxes and I am sure they will carry forward the momentum of the win against Railways against Chandigarh. We will go all out for full points, no doubt about that," said TR Arasu, senior Tamil Nadu selection committee member. "If you see, Chandigarh has just one point, so they will be under immense pressure and this should be exploited by our boys," he added.
Asked if the shuffling of batting line-up from the Railways match would continue, Arasu said it was a tactical call taken by team management based on the pitch. "We need to have a settled batting order. Against Railways at that point of time what the team management felt they did. We selectors don't interfere. However, that (shuffling) will not be the norm. They will bat according to the batting specifications earlier, there won't be any jumbled batting going here and there and all this. So, it will be the general order which will be revealed before the game. And coming back to the Railways game it (batting order) was shuffled because of the wicket. They wanted to get that 20-30 run quickly and then move on. A few worked, a few didn't work. But ultimately, the result proved it was good," revealed Arasu.
Another area that Tamil Nadu batters need to work upon is that of shot selection. Chasing a small total against Railways they tried too many things and the top-order succumbed. Pradosh Ranjan Paul, who generally plays straight, suddenly went for a switch hit and got out leg before. "Shot selection is one area that the team can work upon. Pradosh is a class player, on that day he could have avoided that shot. But it happens, at the spur of the moment, that is the nature of the game. I am sure he would have realized his mistake and would stick to his strength," said Arasu.
Will Tamil Nadu stick to the winning combination or tinker with the XI that played against Railways? "I heard that the pitch was bit green. Look at this level one must be prepared to play on any surface. The Chennai wickets had something for both the pacers as well as the spinners. R Sai Kishore and Co will have a final look at the pitch and weather and then decide the XI. The number of spinners we will play depends upon the number of left-handers the opposition has," opined the former Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper batter.
There are quite a few youngsters in the team like Vimal Khumar, J Hemchudesan, SR Athish and so on, will they get a long rope to prove their worth? "100 per cent, the youngsters will get a long rope. I mean, when we selected the team, we were very particular about giving long rope to the young generation. Because we want to build a young and a different team called Tamil Nadu. And we don't want to stick up with the same old... I think things are falling in place if you ask me honestly. Still a long way ahead. I hope we will do very well," he signed off.
